Too Little or Too Much? The Moderating Role of Rapid Internationalization in the U-Shaped Relationship between Institutional Quality and Re-Entry Firms’ Financial Performance

In International Business studies, institutional quality has long been regarded as a salient factor influencing both the entry of multinational enterprises and their subsequent performance. In this regard, institutional quality can affect not only initial market entry but also the performance of firms upon re-entry. Although the concept of re-entry is not entirely new, empirical studies examining the relationship between institutional quality and the financial performance of re-entering firms remain scarce. To address this research gap, I analyzed data from 370 Japanese listed firms that re-entered ASEAN markets between 2009 and 2019, utilizing a refined re-entry dataset. By integrating institutional theory with the Uppsala Model, the results show that institutional quality has a U-shaped relationship with the financial performance of re-entry firms. Furthermore, a firm’s rapid internationalization — or internationalization speed — moderates this relationship. This research contributes to International Business literature by providing empirical evidence that a re-entry firm's experience with institutional quality ultimately enhances its financial performance once a certain threshold is surpassed. Moreover, the findings suggest that a higher speed of internationalization enables firms to accumulate deeper and more diverse knowledge of institutional environments, which in turn positively influences the financial performance of re-entry firms.