Abstract
In sectors such as financial intermediation, a multinational bank’s (MNB) ability to compete in a host country location depends on its access to information that are embedded in the relationships between local banks and their clients. Institutional distance between home and host countries of MNBs increases the verification costs of the quality of these embedded relationships (and hence the associated assets), and also makes it difficult for a MNB to balance its legitimacy between the two contexts. In this paper we develop hypotheses about the implications of information costs and institutional distance on entry mode choice of MNBs; the hypotheses find support in our empirical analysis.