Critical investigation of joint ventures by UK contractors with other European partners

This study investigates the interactions between the partners in the joint ventures between the UK Contractors and other European (EC) partners. The dynamics of interactions were focused at three levels of the joint ventures: Structure, Organisation and Team. The variables of the interactions at these levels were tested for their relationships with the pattern of success. The general study of joint ventures has been concerned with the macro-inter-firms relationships. However, this study is attempting to seek a pattern of success of the EC JVs from the internal micro level of the JV organisation, i.e. the partners' interactions. The pattern of success for the JVs studied was measured based on ten goals. The expectations and the outcomes of achieving these goals were used to identify the pattern of success of the JVs. Eight cases were available as the sample size and the data were collected by structured interviews as well as by telephone. The UK Contractors' perceptions were only taken for this study. The Spearman Correlation and the non-parametric statistics were used to seek the statistical tests of the various relationships of the variables and against the pattern of high and low JV success. The interactions of the partners at the structure and team were strongly correlated with the pattern of success. The organisation level has strong correlation with the decision-making process indicating that high problems in decision-making is associated with high success. Trust was not having statistically significant correlation with all the variables of interaction, but all cases had high level of trust. The study found strong relationships between the pattern of success of the JVs with the structuring of the interaction based on the sharing of expertise and resources as well as the leadership personality and members' characteristics of the JV teams. Further study into deeper areas of these interaction dynamics is greatly recommended.