The purpose of this study is to apply the institution-based view and resource dependence theory in arguing that perceived deficiencies in a legal service sector where a foreign subsidiary operates will influence the intensity of its political ties with actors in both the regulatory and legal arenas. The authors further theorized that these relationships will vary across governance environments.,The research context for this study was multinational enterprises (MNE) wholly owned foreign subsidiaries and international joint ventures (IJVs) operating in the Philippines and Thailand. Data for most variables in this study came from primary survey data collected in 2018 from senior managers of MNE WOSs and IJVs operating in the Philippines and Thailand.,The authors’ analysis of 352 foreign subsidiaries operating in the Philippines and Thailand show that, in a flawed democracy, perceived deficient legal services enhance the intensity of foreign subsidiary political ties with government actors in both the regulatory and legal arena. However, in a hybrid regime, perceived deficient legal services enhance only the intensity of foreign subsidiary political ties with government actors in the regulatory arena. The authors’ findings also suggest that the relationship between perceived deficiencies in legal service sector and the intensity of political ties is stronger for foreign subsidiaries that operate in heavily regulated industries across both a flawed democracy and hybrid regime. Conversely, the authors do not find the market orientation of these foreign subsidiaries to play a role in this process.,The authors’ study was unable to control for whether managerial perceptions of deficient legal services were well informed at the local or federal level. This issue raises the question of will the presence of an in-house legal department influence managerial perceptions with regard to deficiencies within a legal service sector? Based on these limitations, the authors suggest that future research can further extend political ties research by using a fine-grained analysis in investigating the antecedents of managerial perceptions of legal services within different legal jurisdictions.,The political ties literature has largely argued that political ties are more prevalent in environmental contexts comprising institutional voids as MNEs attempt to mitigate volatility associated with the lack of developed institutional infrastructure (e.g. Blumentritt & Nigh, 2002; Bucheli et al., 2018). However, the concept of institutional voids is very broad and still rather abstract in nature. Hence, scholars have yet to fully understand what types of institutional voids may drive MNE foreign subsidiary political tie intensity in varying governance contextsThe authors’ study attempts to contribute to this important line of research by investigating how one type of institutional void, namely, perceived deficiencies in the legal service sector, can influence the intensity of political ties in varying governance environments.

中文翻译：

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上下文真的重要吗？法律服务不足对监管和法律领域中政治联系强度的影响

这项研究的目的是运用基于制度的观点和资源依赖理论来论证，外国子公司在法律服务部门中所察觉的缺陷将影响其在监管和法律领域与行为者的政治联系的强度。作者进一步推论，这些关系将在不同的治理环境中有所不同。本研究的研究背景是在菲律宾和泰国运营的跨国企业（MNE）的全资外国子公司和国际合资企业（IJV）。本研究中大多数变量的数据来自2018年从在菲律宾和泰国运营的MNE WOS和IJV的高级管理人员收集的主要调查数据。作者对在菲律宾和泰国运营的352家外国子公司的分析表明，在有缺陷的民主制度中，人们认为缺乏法律服务会增强外国子公司在监管和法律领域与政府行为者的政治联系的强度。但是，在混合体制中，人们认为缺乏法律服务只会增强外国子公司在监管领域与政府行为者的政治联系的强度。作者的发现还表明，对于在有缺陷的民主制度和混合制度下，在受到严格管制的行业中运营的外国子公司，法律服务部门的缺陷与政治联系的强度之间的关系更加牢固。相反，作者没有发现这些外国子公司的市场定位在此过程中起作用。作者的研究无法控制地方或联邦一级是否充分了解管理人员对法律服务不足的看法。这个问题提出了一个问题，即内部法律部门的存在会影响管理人员对法律服务部门缺陷的看法吗？基于这些限制，作者建议，通过使用细粒度分析来调查不同法律辖区中对法律服务的管理观念的前因，未来的研究可以进一步扩展政治关系的研究。在跨国公司试图减轻与缺乏发达的机构基础设施相关的动荡的环境中，这种情况在包括机构空白的环境中更为普遍。Blumentritt＆Nigh，2002；Bucheli et al。，2018）。但是，制度无效性的概念非常广泛，本质上仍然相当抽象。因此，学者们尚未完全了解在不同的治理环境下哪种类型的制度空缺会导致跨国公司外国子公司的政治联系强度增加。作者的研究试图通过研究一种类型的制度空缺，即感知到的缺陷，为这一重要的研究领域做出贡献。在法律服务部门中，可以影响不同治理环境中政治联系的强度。