The Impact of Institutional Risk and Competition on the Entry Timing Decision of MNEs into Transisition Economies. Case study: the Former Soviet-Union.

In this research I investigate the impact of formal institutional risk, informal institutional risk, the difference in informal institutional risk between the home and host country, and competition, on the entry timing decision of multinational enterprises from 20 Western European countries into the Former Soviet-Union countries in the time period 1996-2013. Results from the hazard regression models show that there is a positive relationship between the level of formal institutional risk and entry timing in transition economies. Secondly, there is a negative relationship between the level of informal institutional risk and entry timing in transition economies. Thirdly, there is a positive relationship regarding the difference between the level of informal institutional risk in the host country and home country, and entry timing. Lastly, no significant results are found for the effect of competition on the entry timing of MNEs in transition economies.