Ownership, intangible assets and joint ventures' performance: The case with American firms' international joint ventures in Japan

International joint venture (IJV) is one popular form of foreign direct investment (FDI) To date, the state of research in IJV performance has been plagued by confusing concepts, a lack of sound theoretical foundation, and the misinterpretation of transaction cost theory. Consequently, this type of research has generated inconclusive and often conflicting result. It is within this context that this thesis intends to build a theoretical model for international joint ventures' performance.;At the center of this thesis, I propose that there is an interaction effect between parent firms intangible assets and parent firms' share of ownership on joint ventures' performance.;This thesis proceeds in three phases. In phase one, key concepts like IJV control and IJV performance are defined and a theoretical model is introduced. In phase two, exploratory factor analysis is conducted to reveal the distinct dimensions behind multiple indicators of joint ventures' performance. In the third phase, the distinct dimensions of joint ventures' performance are used as dependent variable in the regression analysis.;The contribution of this research is three-fold. First, it clarified some key concepts such as IJV control and IJV performance. Second, drawing on resource-based theory and transaction cost theory, it introduced a theoretical model for IJV performance. Compared to previous research that focus on the bivariate relationship between parent firms' share of ownership and IJV performance, this model proposes that there is an interaction effect between parent firms intangible assets and parent firms' share of ownership on IJV performance. The findings provide partial support for the interaction effects. Third, this study has important implications to practitioners. The study suggests that a large share of ownership may not warrantee superior performance. Actually, our findings indicate that parent firms with a low level of intangible assets and a large share of ownership may cause inferior joint ventures' performance. In order to achieve better performance, foreign investing firms need to make strategic decisions based on their level of intangible assets.