Institutional unpredictability and foreign exit−reentry dynamics: The moderating role of foreign ownership

Abstract

We extend the internationalization process literature by theorizing how institutional unpredictability and its changes can affect the foreign exit−reentry process and how the multidimensionality of foreign ownership can alter these impacts as a firm's conduit to different foreign countries. Drawing on the dynamic institution-based view, we examine a process whereby firms exit and reenter foreign countries in response to institutional dynamism. By distinguishing foreign shareholders from host and nonhost foreign countries, we identify the negative moderation effects of host-country foreign ownership but not nonhost foreign ownership. Our study, therefore, contributes an integrative framework to the de- and re- internationalization research.