Title: Strategic and operational autonomy in the governance of multiparty ventures
Description: This thesis examines why and how managers of successful multiparty ventures achieve any given level of autonomy from venture partners. Interviews with venture managers and partners provide data for a comparative case study analysis of the evolution of two successful multiparty ventures whose autonomy developed on opposing trajectories--one ascending, the other descending. I argue that successful venture managers actively shape the degree of autonomy they attain in order to increase the venture's survival chances; that they do so by exploiting the two distinguishing features of joint ventures, their multilateral structure and the varied status set of the partners; and that adjusting their degree of autonomy helps venture managers mediate partner goal incongruity and mitigate the effects of partner dependence.