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Determinants of joint venture success in Russia
Abstract
Joint venture formation between Russians and Westerners increased from 1,109 in 1989 to approximately 3,000 by mid-1991. Although empirical evidence indicates high failure in this area, up to this point, IJVs have been the primary organizational form used by Western firms to enter the former Soviet Union. Joint venturing is a relatively new phenomenon in Russia; however, it can be said that Americans and Russians already comment on misunderstandings, broken "promises" and incompatible goal expectations between IJV partners. This dissertation addresses these and other joint venture issues between American and Russian partners. The dissertation focuses on contemporary concerns of Russian managers regarding joint venture formation, structuring and expectations through the following questions: Why is the joint venture the preferred organizational form for the Russian manager? What are the Russian managers' joint venture goals and structural expectations? In the context of those questions, the dissertation also considers, theoretical issues regarding the applicability of Western theory to the Russian context. Three Western theories--transaction cost analysis, resource dependence model and institutional theory--are examined to determine their applicability to describe and explain the Russian managers' joint venture expectations. In general, the study questions the underlying assumptions of Western theory. In particular--transaction cost and resource dependence--are based on Western neoclassical economic models which, given the political and economic differences between American and Russian managers, create problems in their applicability to the Russian context. Institutional theory provides the least Western-oriented framework given its context-specific definitions of economic behavior and goals for both managers and organizations. In answering the questions about Russian managerial expectations, the dissertation demonstrates: (1) The need to integrate existing theory to create more sophisticated explanations of Russian managers' joint venture expectations. (2) The importance of contextualizing Western theoretical assumptions in historical and current realities of Russia. (3) The need for further theoretical developments pertaining to international joint ventures.
Subject Area
Management
Recommended Citation
Randall, Linda Marie, "Determinants of joint venture success in Russia" (1994). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9420680.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9420680