In this study, we examine how increasing climate risk in potential host locations impacts MNEs’ location choice for foreign direct investments (FDIs) and consider how the network contingencies, the connectedness of MNEs in the industrywide collocation network and the connectedness of MNEs' country of origin (COO) in the global outward FDI network, moderate this relationship. using a novel dataset from the global automobile industry between 2003 and 2019 we argue and demonstrate that the negative externalities of climate risk reduce the likelihood and magnitude of MNEs locating their FDI in high-climate-risk locations. Further, we find that increasing COO connectedness increases the MNEs’ informational advantages and amplifies the negative impact of increasing climate risk in host locations on MNEs' FDI location choices. Thus, MNEs from more connected COOs are less likely to locate their FDI in high-climate-risk locations. However, the increasing MNE connectedness increases isomorphic pressures and imitative tendencies among collocated MNEs. This attenuates the negative impact of increasing climate risk in host locations on MNEs' FDI location choices. Thus, MNEs more embedded in FDI collocation networks are more likely to locate their FDI in high-risk locations. This study demonstrates the effect of increasing climate risk on the FDI location decisions of MNEs and highlights the contingencies faced by MNEs when making these decisions.
