Content area
Abstract
In this article, the authors examine the effect of the institutional environment on the mortality of overseas subsidiaries. They develop hypotheses to study the impact of political openness and social openness, two dimensions of the institutional environment and how joint venture status moderates these relationships. They test their hypotheses using a sample of 12,000+ Japanese overseas investments from 1986-1997 in 25 countries, using Cox hazard models. Their results suggest that the sociopolitical context has a strong influence on the mortality of overseas subsidiaries. They theorized a negative main effect for political and social openness and positive interaction effects with openness when the FDI is through a JV. The results are consistent with the hypotheses. However, political and social openness show significantly different influences on subsidiary mortality. They conclude by summarizing their contribution and highlighting the limitations of their work and some potential avenues for future research.