Uncertainty, Imitation, And Plant Location: Japanese Multinational Corporations, 1990-1996

This paper combines neoinstitutional theory and research on the institutional environment to explain the process of organizational entry into new geographic markets. We extend neoinstitutional theory's proposition that prior decisions and actions by other organizations provide legitimization and information to a decision marked by uncertainty, by showing that the prevalence of this effect varies across imitation modes as determined by levels of...