This finding is consistent with at least two different hypotheses. First, according to the option-based hypothesis (Pindyck, 1998; Dixit and Pindyck, 1994; Campa, 1993), currency volatility delays the entry of multinational firms because volatility increases the option value associated with waiting before incurring the sunk costs necessary to produce in a foreign country. Exchange rate uncertainty has increased since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, due partly to the introduction of floating exchange rates by all the countries that experienced the crisis, except for Malaysia (Kawai, 2000).