EQUITY PARTICIPATION LEVEL OF MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES IN CROSS-BORDER MERGER AND ACQUISITIONS: A STUDY IN TURKEY CONTEXT

This study tries to examine how industry and institutional environment differences in cross-border merger and acquisitions affect equity participation level of multinational enterprises in an emerging market. We have based our research model and hypotheses on transaction cost based and institution-based view. Since industry and institutional environment differences cause risk and uncertainty to MNEs which lead higher transaction costs for these firms, these two theoretical approaches would be still relevant to understand MNEs' strategic behavior in emerging market contexts. Our findings support the positive influence of industry relatedness on ownership participation but we cannot find support for the moderating influence of both formal and informal institutions on the relationship between industry relatedness and equity participation level. Consequently, our study has shown that transaction cost-based view is still relevant for MNEs' foreign investment decisions in emerging markets and despite institutional voids perspective, formal and informal institutions could not hinder MNEs to take risk in strategic choices.