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The purpose of this paper is to reveal how the host and the home countries’ formal institutions may affect mergers and acquisitions (M&A) abandonment by Russian multinational enterprises (MNEs), and how MNE industry can influence the results. The second objective of the study is to have a separate look at the negative experience, and to uncover its influence on M&A deal completion.

In the study, a sample of 446 international M&A deals initiated by Russian MNEs in the period of 2000–2014 is empirically tested by means of logistic regression analysis.

The empirical analysis indicates that better business environment in the host country is crucially important whereas development of business freedom at home may make the international M&A less attractive and increases the likelihood of M&A deal abandonment. Thus, the larger the institutional distance by this indicator the more likelihood the deal is completed. Contrary results are implied for property rights: the larger the distance between Russia and host country, the lower likelihood of M&A deal completion. Failure experience decreases the likelihood of acquisition completion whereas international experience increases.

The study has number of limitations: individual-level variables were not included in the model; and a limited number of factors were tested due to availability of data and moderate sample size.

The study indicates that better development of business freedom and moderate property rights protection in the host country are the most favorable factors for an M&A deal completion. Russian policymakers should realize that development of property rights protection in Russia ensures success of MNEs abroad, and development of business freedom reduces the outflow of capital from the economy.

The paper makes several theoretical and practical contributions: it contributes to institutional international business literature, indicating in which particular cases institutional distance has positive or negative effect on M&A completion. It also contributes to organizational learning literature, confirming that failures inhibit learning, and firms tend to repeat previous mistakes. Finally, the paper widens the scarce research on Russian MNEs, and on the role of the home country institutions for MNE’s behavior abroad.

The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge about factors that influence the location of Russian foreign direct investments. In particular, it focusses on the role of institutional distance (represented by corruption perception distance, political distance and cultural distance) as a moderator of the relationships between traditional investment motives and the number of M&A deals made by Russian companies in a specific country.

The analysis is conducted on panel data of Russian cross-border M&As launched in 46 countries during the period 2007-2013. The final data set includes 322 observations. Due to the nature of dependent variable and the results of pre-tests, negative binomial regression is used in the main analysis.

The key finding of the study reveals the importance of institutional distance, in particular, the moderating effect of different dimensions of institutional distance on the relationships between internationalization motives and the number of Russian M&As. Corruption, political and cultural differences show different effects in terms of both direction and strength, but all three were found to be significant.

The major concern stems from the type of secondary data used in the paper. This indicates the necessity to improve data collection methods which could allow for better transparency of Russian foreign investments, would facilitate more sophisticated research and probably more accurate business forecasts.

By conducting a systematic examination of Russian cross-border M&As the authors contribute to the literature on emerging markets firms by addressing the important yet under-researched domain of Russian foreign direct investments. Building on the macroeconomic and institutional logic proposed in this study, future research on Russian cross-border activities could add to the understanding by providing more generalizable and critical evidence. The study provides a point of departure from prior studies on Russian outward FDI which the authors hope to inspire future research to further analyze the drivers of Russian M&As and foreign investments in general.