IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/manint/v48y2008i5d10.1007_s11575-008-0034-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

FDI Ownership Strategy: A Japanese-US MNE Comparison

Author

Listed:
  • Jae C. Jung

    (University of Missouri)

  • Paul W. Beamish

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • Anthony Goerzen

    (University of Victoria)

Abstract

and Key Results Much of the extant literature characterizes international joint venture (IJV) as a less stable and less successful form of organization. In this view, the IJV is considered a suboptimal ownership strategy, one where the firm lacks control over its operations, compared to wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS). We tested this widespread view on IJV and WOS by analyzing a large, longitudinal sample of Japanese MNEs, comparing our results to those from US MNEs reported in Desai et al. (2004a) and Gomes-Casseres/Jenkins (2003). Japanese MNEs showed a stronger preference for IJVs over the last two decades as compared to US MNEs. IJV performance exceeded WOS among Japanese firms in most sample years, while WOSs outperformed IJVs among US subsidiaries in all sample years. Clear boundaries exist along the line of country-of-origin, with respect to the generalizability of the extant view toward IJVs.

Suggested Citation

  • Jae C. Jung & Paul W. Beamish & Anthony Goerzen, 2008. "FDI Ownership Strategy: A Japanese-US MNE Comparison," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 491-524, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:48:y:2008:i:5:d:10.1007_s11575-008-0034-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11575-008-0034-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11575-008-0034-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11575-008-0034-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erin Anderson & Hubert Gatignon, 1986. "Modes of Foreign Entry: A Transaction Cost Analysis and Propositions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 17(3), pages 1-26, September.
    2. Andrew Delios & Witold J. Henisz, 2003. "Political hazards, experience, and sequential entry strategies: the international expansion of Japanese firms, 1980–1998," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(11), pages 1153-1164, November.
    3. Harzing, Anne-Wil, 2001. "Of bears, bumble-bees, and spiders: the role of expatriates in controlling foreign subsidiaries," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 366-379, January.
    4. Charles Dhanaraj & Paul W. Beamish, 2004. "Effect of equity ownership on the survival of international joint ventures," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 295-305, March.
    5. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 1977. "The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 8(1), pages 23-32, March.
    6. Jon I Martinez & J Carlos Jarillo, 1989. "The Evolution of Research on Coordination Mechanisms in Multinational Corporations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 20(3), pages 489-514, September.
    7. René A Belderbos & Mariëlle G Heijltjes, 2005. "The determinants of expatriate staffing by Japanese multinationals in Asia: control, learning and vertical business groups," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(3), pages 341-354, May.
    8. Erdener Kaynak & Mehmet Demirbag & Ekrem Tatoglu, 2007. "Determinants of ownership-based entry mode choice of MNEs: Evidence from Mongolia," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 505-530, October.
    9. Gatignon, Hubert & Anderson, Erin, 1988. "The Multinational Corporation's Degree of Control over Foreign Subsidiaries: An Empirical Test of a Transaction Cost Explanation," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 305-336, Fall.
    10. Alfred M Jaeger, 1983. "The Transfer of Organizational Culture Overseas: An Approach to Control in the Multinational Corporation," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 14(2), pages 91-113, June.
    11. Geert Hofstede, 1994. "Management Scientists Are Human," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 4-13, January.
    12. Bird, Allan & Stevens, Michael J., 2003. "Toward an emergent global culture and the effects of globalization on obsolescing national cultures," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 395-407.
    13. Alfred M. Jaeger & B. R. Baliga, 1985. "Control systems and strategic adaptation: Lessons from the Japanese experience," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 115-134, April.
    14. Shih-Fen S Chen & Jean-Francois Hennart, 2002. "Japanese Investors' Choice of Joint Ventures Versus Wholly-owned Subsidiaries in the US: The Role of Market Barriers and Firm Capabilities," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(1), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Yadong Luo, 2007. "Private control and collective control in international joint ventures," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 531-566, October.
    16. Shige Makino & Paul W Beamish, 1998. "Performance and Survival of Joint Ventures with Non-Conventional Ownership Structures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 29(4), pages 797-818, December.
    17. Lawrence G Franko, 1989. "Use of Minority and 50–50 Joint Ventures by United States Multinationals During the 1970s: The Interaction of Host Country Policies Corporate Strategies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 20(1), pages 19-40, March.
    18. Ozawa, Terutomo, 1979. "International Investment and Industrial Structure: New Theoretical Implications from the Japanese Experience," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 72-92, March.
    19. M Krishna Erramilli, 1996. "Nationality and Subsidiary Ownership Patterns in Multinational Corporations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(2), pages 225-248, June.
    20. Jean-François Hennart & Jorma Larimo, 1998. "The Impact of Culture on the Strategy of Multinational Enterprises: Does National Origin Affect Ownership Decisions?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 29(3), pages 515-538, September.
    21. Editors, 2003. "Report of the Editors 2001-2002," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 435-437, January.
    22. Shawna O'Grady & Henry W Lane, 1996. "The Psychic Distance Paradox," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(2), pages 309-333, June.
    23. Geert Hofstede, 1983. "The Cultural Relativity of Organizational Practices and Theories," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 14(2), pages 75-89, June.
    24. J. Myles Shaver, 1998. "Accounting for Endogeneity When Assessing Strategy Performance: Does Entry Mode Choice Affect FDI Survival?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(4), pages 571-585, April.
    25. Lu, Jane W., 2003. "The evolving contributions in international strategic management research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 193-213.
    26. Hongxin Zhao & Yadong Luo & Taewon Suh, 2004. "Transaction cost determinants and ownership-based entry mode choice: a meta-analytical review," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(6), pages 524-544, November.
    27. Jiatao Li, 1995. "Foreign entry and survival: Effects of strategic choices on performance in international markets," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 333-351.
    28. Bruce Kogut, 1988. "Joint ventures: Theoretical and empirical perspectives," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 319-332, July.
    29. Rosalie L Tung, 1984. "Human Resource Planning in Japanese Multinationals: A Model for U.S. Firms?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 15(2), pages 139-149, June.
    30. AfDB AfDB, . "African Development Report 2003," African Development Report, African Development Bank, number 20 edited by Adeleke Oluwole Salami.
    31. Hans Mjoen & Stephen Tallman, 1997. "Control and Performance in International Joint Ventures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(3), pages 257-274, June.
    32. Gomes-Casseres, Benjamin, 1989. "Ownership structures of foreign subsidiaries : Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, January.
    33. J Michael Geringer & Louis Hebert, 1991. "Measuring Performance of International Joint Ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 22(2), pages 249-263, June.
    34. Keith D Brouthers, 2002. "Institutional, Cultural and Transaction Cost Influences on Entry Mode Choice and Performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(2), pages 203-221, June.
    35. Richard E Caves, 1998. "Research on International Business: Problems and Prospects," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 29(1), pages 5-19, March.
    36. Shige Makino & Kent E Neupert, 2000. "National Culture, Transaction Costs, and the Choice Between Joint Venture and Wholly Owned Subsidiary," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(4), pages 705-713, December.
    37. anonymous, 2003. "Monetary policy report to the congress," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Aug, pages 351-378.
    38. Bruce Kogut, 1991. "Joint Ventures and the Option to Expand and Acquire," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 19-33, January.
    39. Yigang Pan, 1997. "The Formation Of Japanese And U.S. Equity Joint Ventures In China," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 247-254, March.
    40. Anthony Goerzen & Paul W. Beamish, 2007. "The Penrose effect: “Excess” expatriates in multinational enterprises," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 221-239, March.
    41. Beamish, Paul W. & Inkpen, Andrew C., 1998. "Japanese firms and the decline of the Japanese expatriate," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 35-50.
    42. Andrew Delios & Paul W. Beamish, 1999. "Ownership strategy of Japanese firms: transactional, institutional, and experience influences," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(10), pages 915-933, October.
    43. Sanjeev Agarwal & Sridhar N Ramaswami, 1992. "Choice of Foreign Market Entry Mode: Impact of Ownership, Location and Internationalization Factors," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(1), pages 1-27, March.
    44. H. Kevin Steensma & Marjorie A. Lyles, 2000. "Explaining IJV survival in a transitional economy through social exchange and knowledge‐based perspectives," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 831-851, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arslan, Ahmad & Tarba, Shlomo Y. & Larimo, Jorma, 2015. "FDI entry strategies and the impacts of economic freedom distance: Evidence from Nordic FDIs in transitional periphery of CIS and SEE," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 997-1008.
    2. Megan Min Zhang & Paul W. Beamish, 2019. "An institutional response model to economic liberalization: Japanese MNEs’ ownership choices in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 33-59, March.
    3. Farah, Bassam & Chakravarty, Dwarka & Dau, Luis & Beamish, Paul W., 2022. "Multinational enterprise parent-subsidiary governance and survival," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    4. Tang, Ryan W. & Buckley, Peter J., 2020. "Host country risk and foreign ownership strategy: Meta-analysis and theory on the moderating role of home country institutions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    5. Jae C. Jung & Khan-Pyo Lee, 2018. "Host Country Sourcing of Multinational Enterprises: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 683-701, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jae C. Jung & Paul W. Beamish & Anthony Goerzen, 2010. "Dynamics of Experience, Environment and MNE Ownership Strategy," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 267-296, June.
    2. Megan Min Zhang & Paul W. Beamish, 2019. "An institutional response model to economic liberalization: Japanese MNEs’ ownership choices in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 33-59, March.
    3. Canabal, Anne & White III, George O., 2008. "Entry mode research: Past and future," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 267-284, June.
    4. Zdolsek, Daniel & Kolar, Iztok, 2013. "Management disclosure practices for disaggregated (financial) information in Slovenian unlisted companies," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 232-263.
    5. Erdener Kaynak & Mehmet Demirbag & Ekrem Tatoglu, 2007. "Determinants of ownership-based entry mode choice of MNEs: Evidence from Mongolia," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 505-530, October.
    6. Larimo, Jorma & Arslan, Ahmad, 2013. "Determinants of foreign direct investment ownership mode choice: Evidence from Nordic investments in Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 232-263.
    7. Li, Peng-Yu & Meyer, Klaus E., 2009. "Contextualizing experience effects in international business: A study of ownership strategies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 370-382, October.
    8. Piaskowska, D., 2005. "Essays on firm growth and value creation," Other publications TiSEM 89053610-79c6-4c52-9d1c-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Morschett, Dirk & Schramm-Klein, Hanna & Swoboda, Bernhard, 2010. "Decades of research on market entry modes: What do we really know about external antecedents of entry mode choice?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 60-77, March.
    10. Slangen, Arjen H.L. & van Tulder, Rob J.M., 2009. "Cultural distance, political risk, or governance quality? Towards a more accurate conceptualization and measurement of external uncertainty in foreign entry mode research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 276-291, June.
    11. Jisun Yu & Seung-Hyun Lee & Kunsoo Han, 2015. "FDI motives, market governance, and ownership choice of MNEs: A study of Malaysia and Thailand from an incomplete contracting perspective," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 335-362, June.
    12. Bowman, Gary & Foulser-Piggott, Roxane & Beamish, Paul W, 2023. "Natural disasters and MNE internalization: Reoptimizing subsidiary governance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    13. Youngok Kim & Sidney J. Gray, 2008. "The impact of entry mode choice on foreign affiliate performance: The case of foreign MNEs in South Korea," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 165-188, April.
    14. Cuypers, I.R.P., 2009. "Essays on equity joint ventures, uncertainty and experience," Other publications TiSEM 8dc79e86-c625-467f-a450-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. George Peng & Paul Beamish, 2014. "The effect of host country long term orientation on subsidiary ownership and survival," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 423-453, June.
    16. Chen, Ming-Yuan & Chang, Jing-Yun, 2011. "The choice of foreign market entry mode: An analysis of the dynamic probit model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 439-450.
    17. Mehmet Demirbag & Ekrem Tatoglu & Keith W. Glaister, 2010. "Institutional and Transaction Cost Influences on Partnership Structure of Foreign Affiliates," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 709-745, December.
    18. Chung, Chris Changwha & Beamish, Paul W., 2005. "Investment mode strategy and expatriate strategy during times of economic crisis," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 331-355, September.
    19. Michael Nippa & Jeffrey J Reuer, 2019. "On the future of international joint venture research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(4), pages 555-597, June.
    20. Demirbag, Mehmet & Tatoglu, Ekrem & Glaister, Keith W., 2009. "Equity-based entry modes of emerging country multinationals: Lessons from Turkey," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 445-462, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:48:y:2008:i:5:d:10.1007_s11575-008-0034-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.