Greenfield Investments or Acquisitions: Impacts of Institutional Distance on Establishment Mode Choice of Multinational Enterprises in Emerging Economies

The authors analyze the impacts of formal and informal institutional distance on establishment mode choice of multinational enterprises (MNEs) using a sample of 343 foreign direct investments (FDIs) made in selected emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America by the Finnish MNEs. This study contributes to conceptualization and operationalization of institutional distance as well as its application in international business studies. The empirical analysis revealed that high informal institutional distance results in preference of greenfield investments by the Finnish MNEs as the authors hypothesized. However, the authors also found that high formal institutional distance results in preference of acquisitions, which is opposite the study hypothesis as well as the findings of previous studies addressing similar issues.