Interpartner, Parent, and Environmental Factors Influencing the Operation of International Joint Ventures: 15 Years of Research1

Zusammenfassung

---

Management International Review's 1988 special issue on co-operative issues in international business highlighted the elevated use of international joint ventures (IJVs) by multinational companies. Since that issue, the popularity of IJVs has increased in the business as well as academic world. The result is a massive research area that focuses on interpartner, parent, and environmental factors that influence the operation of IJVs. In this article, we provide a thorough review of IJV research that was published in the fifteen years following the special issue. We concentrate on developments and gaps in IJV research at three levels of analysis: interpartner, parent, and environmental. In fifteen years, ten major journals published 194 articles in the IJV field. The numerous contradictory findings and lack of multi-level research are intricate, but controllable, weaknesses of the field. The assessment offers numerous opportunities for future research on and across the different levels of analysis.

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

Auszug

---

Interpartner, Parent, and Environmental Factors Influencing the Operation of International Joint Ventures: 15 Years of Research1

Introduction

It has been fifteen years since Management International Review (1988) published the special issue on co-operative issues in international business. Many special issues on the same topic would follow in other top management journals (e.g., Academy of Management Journal 1996, Journal of International Business Studies 1996, Management International Review 1990). At present, decision-makers continue to recognize the importance of collaboration with firms abroad, and research on international joint ventures (IJVs) has soared.

Reviewers of the field have, however, criticized IJV research for its lack of consolidation (Anderson 1990, Parkhe 1993a, Robson/Leonidou/Katsikeas 2002). Beamish and Killing (1996) urged researchers to elevate efforts to build on existing knowledge. Others have argued that the multiplicity of theoretical and empirical approaches to studying IJVs (Robson/Leonidou/Katsikeas 2002), and differing measures of performance, from different parent perspectives or on different levels of analysis (e.g. Osland/Cavusgil 1998) have contributed to a lack of synthesis and hindered the development of IJV research.

The emphasis that previous reviewers have placed on various theories that dominate examination of IJVs has greatly enhanced our understanding of IJV operations (Beamish/Killing 1996, Kogut 1988a, Parkhe 1993a, Robson/Leonidou/Katsikeas 2002). However, this theoretical emphasis has not led to a thorough understanding of the complexities of multi-level analysis that is in...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---