We identify and demonstrate the merit of a novel institutional factor, safety risk, which likely affects multinational corporations’ (MNCs’) international investment decisions. Safety risk refers to the extent to which security and physical well-being are endangered due to normalized aggression and criminality in society. Despite concerns from executives and policymakers, safety risk has attracted little research attention. We validate a safety risk measure and evaluate the construct’s effect on MNCs’ investments. The findings indicate that countries’ safety risk deters MNCs from investing. Further, in post hoc analyses, firms’ prior experiences with safety risk and countries’ private security investments moderated this relationship.

我们确定并证明了新颖的制度性因素安全风险的优点，它可能会影响跨国公司（MNCs）的国际投资决策。安全风险是指由于正常的侵略行为和社会犯罪行为而对安全和人身安全造成威胁的程度。尽管高管和决策者对此表示担忧，但是安全风险几乎没有引起研究的注意。我们验证了一项安全风险措施，并评估了该构造对跨国公司投资的影响。调查结果表明，国家的安全风险阻碍了跨国公司进行投资。此外，在事后分析中，公司先前在安全风险方面的经验以及各国的私人保安投资减轻了这种关系。