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

Abstract * 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. Key Results * 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. 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 inherent to IJV research. The purpose of this article is to review IJV research that has been published in the fifteen-year time span since the special issue of Management International Review (1988) was published. IJV operations are affected by the collaboration of partners during the venture, contributions from the parents, and turbulence of the environment in which the IJV is situated. In our review we set out to identify the major topics that have been examined on these different levels of analysis (interpartner, parent, and environment), without restricting us to specific theoretical frameworks. Subsequently, we examine the levels of analysis that are emphasized by two popular theoretical perspectives--transaction cost economics and organizational learning. Before we discuss the issues that dominated research in the last 15 years we will shortly highlight influential works from the pre-1988 era. International Joint Venture Research, Pre-1988 Friedmann and Kalmanoff (1961), Tomlinson (1970), and Franko (1971) are three seminal works that initiated research on IJVs. From their studies in the late 1950s, Friedmann and Kalmanoff (1961) observed that "joint international business ventures" were becoming an important phenomenon in developing countries. They describe the massive aid from the United States in Europe's post-war rebuilding, which resulted in numerous IJVs between US and European organizations. …