Two essays on the role of multinationality in corporate finance

The purpose of this dissertation is to advance our knowledge of the role of multinationality in corporate financial decisions. It consists of two essays; in the first study I examine the relations between national cultures, the multinationality of the firm and its holdings of liquid assets. I develop and test several hypotheses from well known corporate finance theories and theories of the multinational firm, positing that cultural factors as well as multinationality influence the decisions of firms to hold liquid assets. In particular, firms in countries with high uncertainty avoidance, as a national culture, hold more liquid assets as a way to hedge against undesired states of nature. In addition, as a reflection of their longer business cycles, multinational firms hold more liquid assets on average. I advance, however, that the multinationality of the firm moderates the effects of culture on the firm's decision to hold liquid assets.; Literature in international business and finance share the belief that country level institutions affect the decisions of corporations. In the second essay, I highlight the other side of the picture and postulate that MNCs can also modify the national institutions of the host country. I propose and test two mechanisms through which an MNC may affect local culture: the awareness effect and the opportunity effect. The standardization of management knowledge and practice fueled by the expansion of MNCs is what I label the "awareness effect". The other mechanism is what I label the "opportunity effect". Even if all firms and managers in a country are aware of best practices, domestic firms may not be able to adopt them. In particular, I show that multinationality weakens the effect of national culture on a firm's capital structure.