Regulatory Institutional Distance and MNCs' Subsidiary Performance: Climbing up Vs. Climbing Down the Institutional Ladder

We investigate the possibility of regulatory institutional distance exerting an asymmetric effect on multinational corporations' (MNCs') subsidiary performance depending on the direction of institutional distance. We use the term ‘institutional ladder’ to differentiate between upward distance, referred to as when the subsidiary is operating in a relatively stronger institutional environment than its parent-firm's home country, and downward distance for vice versa. Combining institutional theory with organisational imprinting and learning perspectives, we argue that the implications of regulatory institutional distance on subsidiary performance are relatively more positive (or less negative) when MNCs are climbing down the institutional ladder as compared to when MNCs are climbing up the institutional ladder. We also argue that subsidiary ownership strategy – i.e. the choice of a wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) versus joint venture (JV) – moderates the above-mentioned implications of institutional distance on subsidiary performance. We test these hypotheses based on a panel data-set of 1936 foreign subsidiaries representing 70 host countries and 66 home countries and spanning the 12-year period: 2002–2013.     

Trojan Horses or Local Allies: Host-country National Managers in Developing Market Subsidiaries

We investigate a multinational corporation's (MNC) decision to appoint host-country national (HCN) managers to foreign subsidiaries based on the institutional context of and familiarity with the host country. HCN managers are commonly associated with specialized knowledge, superior responsiveness, and higher legitimacy. Yet, we argue that local familiarity of HCNs can also be perceived as risky or harmful by MNC parents. We analyze how formal and informal institutions affect the trade-off between positive effects and potential costs associated with HCN managers (“Local allies” vs. “Trojan horses”). We find that legal institutions protect foreign MNCs from potential costs, encourage the use of HCNs and reinforce their benefits. Corruption and corruption distance, however, increase perceived costs associated with HCN managers up to a point at which they outweigh their perceived benefits.     

Impacts of institutional pressures and the strength of market supporting institutions in the host country on the ownership strategy of multinational enterprises: theoretical discussion and propositions

The ownership strategy of multinational enterprises (MNEs) i.e. the choice between wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) or international joint venture (IJV) is an extensively studied topic in international business studies. Many past studies concentrated on transactional, economic, location attraction, resource seeking and learning rationales for the ownership strategy of MNEs. However, it is important to note that MNEs enter a new institutional environment also when they enter new international markets. Therefore, the ownership strategy of MNEs is also influenced by the external as well as internal institutions. This paper attempts to address the impacts of different institutional pressures on ownership strategy of MNEs using the arguments from institutional theory. The paper also includes discussion about the strength of market supporting institutions in the host country and its impacts on the ownership strategy of MNEs. On the basis of the theoretical discussion, several propositions are developed in this paper. These propositions relate the ownership strategy of MNEs with the impacts of internal and external institutional pressures on it. It is also proposed to consider the impact of strength of market supporting institutions in the host country on the ownership strategy specifically. When the host country has well developed institutions supporting market conforming values, they can moderate the impacts of coercive and normative pressures from external institutions on the MNEs.     

Psychic distance and ownership in acquisitions: Direction matters

Recent research has begun to explore the impact of country-of-origin and direction on internationalization decisions in response to controversy over the use of symmetrical and absolute values of distance. In this paper we contribute to this stream of research by studying the moderating influence of direction on the distance–ownership relationship as it relates to cross-border acquisitions. We ground our arguments in transaction cost economics and supplement this lens using institutional theory to contextualize the home-host country relationship through moderating effects. Through our study of 25,440 full and partial acquisitions (9577 MNEs, 25 countries, 15 years), we demonstrate that the distance–ownership relationship is moderated by direction. We further find that acquisition ownership decisions made by emerging country MNEs differ significantly from those made by developed country MNEs. Our findings demonstrate that future research on the impact of distance should consider the differences between MNEs from emerging versus developed economies, in addition to host country characteristics.     

Managerial Risk‐taking in International Acquisitions in the Brewery Industry: Institutional and Ownership Influences Compared

This paper deals with the role that institutional differences play in managerial risk‐taking when firms engage in international acquisitions. It is assumed that multinational corporations (MNCs) have different interests and capabilities when dealing with international acquisition, which in the authors’ view are significantly shaped by specific home country institutional influences. This study concerns the question of how different forms of ownership – concentrated (e.g. family and bank based) and dispersed (stock market based) – influence risk‐taking and managerial decision‐making in large international acquisitions. Comparing a total of 12 large acquisitions of four leading MNCs in the global brewery industry, the paper shows that mutually reinforcing influences of country of origin (coordinated vs liberal market economies) and ownership (family ownership vs stock market ownership) lead to different risk profiles and managerial risk‐taking with regard to international acquisitions.     

The Impact of Vicarious Experience on Foreign Location Strategy

MNEs can learn from the foreign investment experiences of other firms when evaluating their own foreign entry strategies. We argue that other firms' experiences reduce investment barriers arising from formal and informal institutional environments in host countries that are dissimilar from an MNE's home country, thereby encouraging new entry. Our empirical analysis of foreign entries by Japanese public manufacturing firms over more than a thirty-year period indicates that the prior experiences of other firms in a host country mitigate the negative effect of formal and informal institutional distance on entry decisions: as other firms' experiences in a host country increase, a firm is less deterred by greater institutional distance from entering the country. We also find that the distance-mitigating effect of other firms' experiences in different industries is less significant when a larger body of same-industry firm experience exists in a country, implying a substitution effect between different types of vicarious experience.     

Institutions and the Diversity and Prevalence of Multinationals’ Knowledge‐Augmenting Subsidiaries

Multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly seek to gain access to, and exploit, locationally specific sources of advanced knowledge and technological capabilities, creating a need to explain (1) the diversity among these facilities and (2) how institutions influence MNCs’ abilities to invest in different subsidiary types. Extending debates on firms’ knowledge‐augmenting activities, the authors integrate institutions into their analytical framework to a greater extent than previous work has done. Moreover, existing contributions provide typologies of R&D subsidiaries. In contrast, the authors focus on a particular subset of subsidiaries, knowledge‐augmenting ones, and put forward a theory to explain their variety and their prevalence, enabling them to identify previously neglected subsidiary types that have important managerial and policy implications. By downplaying the diversity of these subsidiaries, existing work has not been able to capture the full range of managerial challenges as well as the costs and benefits of different subsidiary types to host countries. The authors, therefore, problematize firms’ abilities to gain access to foreign knowledge‐generating assets, highlight the importance of institutional environments, provide policy recommendations and identify areas for future research.     

The effect of informal and formal institutions on foreign market entry selection and performance

We investigate the impact of informal institutional distance and formal institutions on a key decision (namely location choice) of multinational enterprises (MNEs) when they expand abroad through foreign direct investment. The findings of the research that has analyzed these decisions have been non-conclusive, and this study aims to provide further theoretical and empirical evidence by considering the interaction effect of informal institutional distance and formal institutions in the location choice and its performance implications. Through an analysis of the internationalization of mobile telecommunications carriers, we demonstrate that formal institutions in a host country positively moderate the negative relationship between informal institutional distance and the likelihood of an MNE entering that country. Moreover, we find that those location choices that can be predicted through the institutional lens obtain higher performance than those entries that cannot be predicted through the interaction of informal and formal institutions.     

Does Syndication With Local Venture Capitalists Moderate the Effects of Geographical and Institutional Distance?

Venture capitalists (VCs) face additional risks and costs when they invest in firms located in geographically remote countries or in countries whose institutions differ substantially from those in their home countries. Our study considers foreign VCs ' prospect of overcoming these investment obstacles as a rationale for syndicating with local VCs from the investment countries. Through such syndication, foreign VCs may obtain easier access to investment opportunities, improve the risk allocation and face lower information costs. Using a novel dataset of worldwide deals, we draw a diametrically opposed picture for the two kinds of distance: our results lend support to the conjecture that the obstacles of great institutional distance cannot be overcome with the help of a local VC, whereas those of great geographical distance can.     

Host country corruption and MNE location choice: The view of institutional pluralism

Whether to invest in a corrupt host country is an important decision for MNEs. Although scholars have investigated the contingent impacts of the institutional characteristics of the MNE parent's home country, extant research concentrates on examining the country-level contingent impact. It neglects the institutional pluralism view that MNEs could face different institutional logics through firm-level channels in their home country, which influences their decision to enter a corrupt host country. Employing the unique dataset of 42,126 Japanese MNE-host country-year pairs, this study finds that MNEs are discouraged from investing in corrupt host countries when they have greater foreign ownership or a higher ratio of independent board members because they face shareholder-oriented institutional logic in the home country. Such an effect is mitigated when MNEs are embedded in cross-equity holdings, as they face stakeholder-oriented logic.     

Home–Host Country Distance in Offshore Governance Choices

This paper studies the effect of home–host country distance on the choice of governance mode in service offshoring. Using a Transaction Cost Economics approach, we explore the comparative costs of the hierarchical and contractual models to show that different dimensions of distance (geographic, cultural and institutional), because they generate different types of uncertainties, impact offshore governance choices in different ways. Empirical results confirm that, on the one hand, firms are more likely to respond to internal uncertainties resulting from geographic and cultural distance by leveraging the internal controls and collaboration mechanisms of a captive offshore service center. On the other hand, they tend to respond to external uncertainties resulting from institutional distance by limiting their foreign commitment and leveraging the resources and local experience of third party service providers. Finally, we find that the temporal distance component (time zone difference) of geographical dispersion between onshore and offshore countries plays a dominant role over the spatial distance component.     

When Financial Intermediaries are Corporate Owners: An Agency Model of Institutional Ownership

Increasingly, the equity investments of individual investors are being channeled through financial institutions. This article posits that the role of institutional owners as financial intermediaries, and the resulting complexity that institutions bring to ownership, distinguish institutional ownership from individual ownership. I develop a model of institutional ownership, referred to as the nexus agency model (NAM), which reflects this complexity. The model provides a framework for identifying the potential additional agency costs to beneficial owners that are associated with owning via financial institutions. The degree to which owning via institutions benefits individual owners depends on the adequacy of the legal and regulatory environment and governance mechanisms in protecting individual owners' interests. The applicability of the nexus model to different institutional owner types is then demonstrated in a discussion of U.S. public and private pension plans and mutual funds, leading to the generation of a NAM-based research agenda for each type and across the types. The article ends with discussion of the model's applicability to non-U.S. institutional environments.     

Dealing with high-risk environments: Institutional-based tools to reduce political risk costs

The international business (IB) literature on political risk mitigation has assigned explanatory preeminence to the organizational capabilities of multinational corporations (MNCs). The literature has assumed that political risk is avoidable for MNCs with specific political capabilities. We argue that political risk is inevitable. We posit that even if MNCs have political capabilities, host countries' political risk and its associated costs will not simply disappear. Extending the literature on political risk mitigation, we highlight the role of institutional-based tools in curbing political risk costs. Specifically, we posit that MNCs can reduce political risk costs through (i) international investment agreements, (ii) investment contracts with host governments, (iii) political risk insurance, and (iv) guarantees with binding enforcement mechanisms in unison with relying on political capabilities, thereby dampening the negative effect of uncontrollable host country political risk. We leverage the political-institutional approach to political risk and draw on relevant literature from law and IB to develop a framework to describe the conditions under which MNCs may use these institutional-based tools.     

Multinationals and Skills Policy Networks: HRM as a Player in Economic and Social Concerns

This paper uses an embeddedness framework to reconceptualize HRM agency over the external labour market, and in so doing bring into focus the societal implications of HRM. Drawing on qualitative data from 53 key informants in two English regions, we identify the ways in which the subsidiaries of foreign multinationals (MNCs) engage with labour market skills actors. Our findings reveal how power structures are mobilized by local economic actors to align labour market skills with MNCs’ demand priorities. We show that multinationals may seek to partially endogenize (i.e. take ownership of) the resources of local labour markets when their competitive value is redefined in social as well as economic terms, and demonstrate that the social structure of sub‐national institutional governance arrangements and firm strategic action on skills creates the conduit through which resource endogenization may occur. Theoretically, this paper identifies the social structure of networks as a casual mechanism to bridge divergent skill interests, which is mobilized when network actors have the capacity to frame fields within the social structure of the network around ideas on economic sustainability and moral interest.     

Institutional distance and the international market entry mode: A meta-analysis

With increasing interest in the internationalization of multinational enterprises, recent studies have focused on the differences between institutions in home and host countries and how they affect the strategic entry decisions of multinational enterprises, particularly the equity-based entry mode. However, the conclusions regarding institutional distance and the equity-based market entry mode are contradictory. This relationship is theoretically unclear and empirically inconsistent. To help resolve these contradictory findings, we conduct meta-analytic research on the relationship between institutional distance and equity-based entry mode. We investigate several moderators that may affect this relationship. These moderators can be divided into three types: measurement factors, such as indices, data sources, and calculation methods; contextual factors, such as industry, time of study, and country characteristics; and theoretical orientation. We offer theoretical insights and recommendations to improve the validity and reliability of research on institutional distance, equity-based entry mode, and ideas for future research.     

Liability of ecosystem integration and internationalisation of digital firms

The widespread emergence of digital firms has important implications for international business theory. In this paper, we argue that because of systematic cross-industry differences in the local ecosystems digital firms need to develop in foreign markets, they will face differential costs and challenges of what we term liability of ecosystem integration (LoEI). The nature of the LoEI differs from both traditional concepts of the liability of foreignness (LoF) and the liability of outsidership (LoO). Rather than reflecting the need to overcome economic or psychic distance by learning about the host country (as with LoF) or investing in relationship-specific knowledge (as with LoO), overcoming LoEI requires investments in catalysing the co-development of a local ecosystem involving users, complementors and institutional actors specific to each business. We show how the level of LoEI a firm faces depends on the characteristics of its industry and its business model along three dimensions: the level of integration with local users, complementors, and institutions. These characteristics impact both firm's success in internationalisation and the level of concentration in the global market.     

Internationalization of Developing Country Firms into Developed Countries: The Role of Host Country Knowledge-Based Assets and IPR Protection in FDI Location Choice

Foreign direct investment (FDI) from developing to developed countries is a widespread phenomenon in the global economy. The literature suggests that such investments frequently follow a motive to seek knowledge-based assets, with the goal of augmenting the firm's resource base through internationalization. We argue that the prevalence of this motive may direct developing country firms' FDI toward developed countries with relatively stronger knowledge-based assets and weaker intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and that this effect is amplified when both conditions coincide. Furthermore, we suggest that the respective importance of knowledge-based assets and IPR protection diminishes as developing countries augment their own knowledge-based assets and that the importance of asset seeking as an internationalization motive for the country's firms declines compared with other motives such as institutional escapism. We investigate our model with FDI data including investment flows from 85 developing countries to 35 developed countries during 2009–2014. We find that developing country firms prefer investing in developed countries with stronger knowledge-based assets and weaker IPR protection. These criteria attract even more FDI when both co-occur. Furthermore, the influence of weaker host country IPR protection on the location decision diminishes for firms originating from home countries with higher stocks of knowledge-based assets.     

Liability of foreignness as a barrier to knowledge spillovers: Lost in translation?

Multinational corporations (MNC) search increasingly for lead market knowledge and technological expertise around the globe. We investigate whether their subsidiaries gain access to these valuable sources of host country knowledge to the same degree as domestic rivals. We develop a theoretical framework for “why” and “how” a lack of embeddedness and legitimacy (liability of foreignness) may translate into additional obstacles for foreign subsidiaries. We test these hypotheses empirically using a broad dataset of more than 1100 firms in Germany. We find that MNCs can compete on an equal footing with host country competitors when it comes to generating impulses for innovations from universities. They are significantly challenged by liabilities of foreignness, though, when host country customers are involved. The disadvantages are especially pronounced when the host country industry is at the technological forefront. We suggest that the disadvantages arising from liability of foreignness in the host country are especially relevant when promising lead customers have to be identified and their tacit and often unarticulated impulses have to be transferred, understood and prioritized. Management recommendations are developed on the basis of these results.     

Entry and access to competencies abroad: Emerging market firms versus advanced market firms

This article examines the acquisition behavior of multinational companies from emerging markets (EMNCs) compared to multinational companies from advanced markets (AMNCs). Specifically, we relate the governance mode (i.e. the degree of commitment) to exogenous and endogenous uncertainty. As a result of endogenous uncertainty due to their liability of origin, EMNCs are likely to acquire less control, which is exacerbated by exogenous uncertainty when acquiring targets in high-tech sectors. Furthermore, EMNCs experience a higher propensity to control the local partner the higher the institutional distance with the host country, since they enjoy a better institutional environment when they invest in advanced countries and, hence, they are less likely to need a local partner. To test our hypotheses, we develop an econometric analysis applied to foreign acquisitions in Italy between 2001 and 2010 and we study the degree of control of AMNCs as compared to EMNCs. Our results confirm that EMNCs acquire less control than AMNCs, especially in high-tech industries, while institutional distance in trade and investment freedom effectively increase the probability to undertake full acquisition for EMNCs as opposed to AMNCs.     

The influence of national culture and institutional voids on family ownership of large firms: A country level empirical study

There is considerable variation across countries in both the extent to which large publicly listed firms are family-owned and the dominance of such family-owned firms in stock markets. The literature presents competing theoretical viewpoints on what influences such country-level variation. On one hand, institutional economists suggest that institutional voids can have a strong influence. On the other hand, cultural sociologists suggest that a country's culture can have a strong influence. One type of institutional void is a lack of institutional norms and regulations needed for monitoring contracts (which can discourage owners from hiring professional agents for top management positions in their firms) and another type of institutional void is a lack of financial credit availability in the country. Cultural dimensions include collectivism (i.e. cohesion within in-groups/families) and power distance (i.e. inequalities in society). This country-level empirical study suggests that both national culture and institutional voids influence family ownership patterns around the world, and that institutional voids moderate the influence of national culture. National culture has a stronger influence when a country has institutional voids; however, the influence of national culture weakens when institutional voids are overcome.