Previous international business studies discussed widely drivers of foreign entry and exit strategies though, the internationalisation process, i.e., changes in ownership levels, has been neglected in extant literature. Elaborating on the attention-based view, we discuss the changes in the external environmental stimuli, focusing specifically on the formal institution, i.e., host economic growth, corporate tax, economic freedom, and political stability, and their triggering effects on the changes in ownership equity. We further delve into the post-survival of the governance restructure. Examining the changes in ownership structure and foreign divestment among Nordic MNEs from 1980-2021, our study extends the attention-based view and contributes to the international business literature. We showed that parents would pay attention to changes in the host market conditions to adjust their commitments among existing focal subsidiaries. An increasing change in ownership equity would also signal a longer survival rate in the later stage of the international business process though, the effect would likely be modified by the nature of the ownership change decision.
