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International joint ventures (IJV) are an important organizational mode for expanding and sustaining global business and have been of special relevance for the emerging Chinese market for decades. While IJVs offer specific economic advantages they also present serious management problems that lead to high failure rates, especially in developing countries. Because of the strategic relevance of IJVs and corresponding management challenges, research on success factors for managing IJVs in China has received broad attention, resulting in a variety of studies. However, there are no conceptual syntheses of the literature to date and further development in the field is hampered by both a lack of consolidation of what is known and identification of viable avenues for future research. We address this gap by building on existing concepts in the field, developing them further and synthesizing them into an integrative, theory‐based framework of IJV success factors. We use this framework to systematically depict the results of both empirical studies related to Sino‐foreign IJVs and to IJVs in general. Finally, we draw important implications from the research and propose potential paths for future study.

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics, job stress, and cognitive and affective conflict faced by Chinese top managers and how this conflict is resolved over multiple rounds of conflict situations. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire was designed and submitted to Chinese top managers of firms located in Sichuan Province, PRC. Besides Likert-type questions concerning demographic characteristics, job stress, and both types of conflict, contextual anchorage method was used to let top managers rank the conflict resolution styles they would prefer for solving a given situation of conflict. Findings -Data were submitted to hierarchical regression analysis. It was found that age is in negative relation with job stress and that the higher the education level of top managers, the more cognitive conflict they will experience. In turn, the more cognitive conflict, the more affective conflict will be experienced. In addition, it was found that job stress is in positive association with cognitive conflict. Finally and most importantly, the findings indicated that Chinese top managers are inclined to using integrating to handle conflict. This seems to be generally inconsistent with traditional Chinese culture. Originality/value -The paper accounted for respective calls that proposed to focus on the antecedent conditions of cognitive and affective conflict. Therefore, a framework containing important antecedent factors of conflict was proposed. As a first attempt, it integrated the relationship between job stress and conflict. Most importantly, and also as a first attempt, however, this study sought to identify the conflict resolution styles Chinese top managers applied over multiple rounds of conflict situations, whereas findings additionally differentiate between affective and cognitive types of conflict.

Strategic alliances are considered a flexible form of organizing, yet they are often long-lived. Even when systematic benefit-cost analysis suggests that their organizational form should be changed or terminated, some alliances still persist. Drawing on behavioral decision theory, we propose a theoretical model that explains this phenomenon. Decision makers are subject to a variety of biases that can lead to the overvaluation of the net benefits of an alliance and, hence, inhibit the change or discontinuation of underperforming alliances. Our model illustrates how decision-making biases at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and interorganizational levels are moderated by the design of an alliance and the tools employed in the decision-making process. This behavioral decision perspective advances our theoretical understanding of the longevity of strategic alliances and their embeddedness in complex decision-making contexts.

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