Paper info

NETWORKS AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL JOINT VENTURES

Tuija Mainela

The paper was published at the 17th IMP-conference in Oslo, Norway in 2001.

Despite their popularity in nowadays business international joint ventures have proven very difficult to manage. Theprevious research on international joint ventures has been claimed unable to advice managers in leading the venturestowards successful long-term development. In this paper the research on joint ventures is analysed and a new avenue forresearch is suggested. This research would see the international joint venture as a new venture whose operations need tobe organized and which needs to be positioned in the relationship networks. There is seen a need to set the joint ventureas the focal actor that has relationships to multiple other actors whose importance varies along its development. Thisapproach avoids the prevailing overemphasis on parent relationship, and seeing the joint venture only as one subsidiaryamong others. Some conceptual tools of the network approach are suggested well appropriate for this kind of research.