Learning from cooperative inter‐organizational relationships: the case of international joint venture

Abstract

Purpose -Facing increasing global competition, firms must ceaselessly acquire new knowledge and enhance their capabilities in response to rapidly changing customer requirements. Amidst the varying collaborative relationships that occur between firms, it is particularly important for firms to learn from international joint ventures. However, few existing studies have explored this issue empirically. Rooted in the organizational learning perspective, this study seeks to investigate the learning intent, learning process and learning outcomes of host parent companies taking part in international joint ventures, and to propose and verify a theoretical model of learning for host parent companies. Design/methodology/approach -The study used Taiwanese firms as research objects and employed the survey method to collect sample data. In total, 64 international joint ventures involving Taiwanese firms were collected and analyzed. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between latent constructs, such as learning intent, learning process and learning outcome. Thus, the structural equation modeling approach was adopted to test the theoretical model. However, the sample size used in this study was small, so the partial least squares (PLS) method was employed. Findings -The empirical results showed that a parent company's learning outcome is affected by the interaction between the parent company and the joint venture, as well as the internal knowledge integration capacity of the parent company. The interaction between the parent company and the joint venture will simultaneously drive the parent's intra-organisational knowledge integration. Moreover, the parent company's strategic intent to learning from the joint venture will affect the parent company's knowledge integration, along with the interaction between the parent company and the joint venture. Likewise, the parent company's learning intent will affect its evaluation of the joint venture's knowledge, while further influencing its intraorganizational knowledge integration. Originality/value -The paper combines the perspectives of learning intent, learning process and learning outcomes in order to propose and test empirically a model that explains how the host parents of developing countries enhance their knowledge and capabilities by means of international joint ventures. Thus, the study attends to the deficiency of the literature in addressing the field of learning through international joint ventures. It also provides some insights and suggestions for firms that regard alliance strategy as a learning opportunity for enhancing a firm's knowledge base and organizational capabilities.

Ensuring Competitive Advantage through Innovation Capability and Clustering in the Thai Automotive Parts Molding Industry: A SEM Approach

“…Joint ventures where trust and communications exist are crucial elements in profitability and competitive advantage as well. This study's results are in agreement with Huang [65] who wrote about the crucial importance of international JVs for internationally focused enterprises to maintain a competitive advantage and felt that collaboration, knowledge transfer and learning processes were the primary responsibility of the JV's parent company.…”

“…The use of collaboration technology is the driving force behind innovation which positively affects competitive advantage [43,65,66].…”

Cluster and R&D Affecting the Competitive Advantage of the Mould and Die Sector in the Thai Automotive Industry

“…This corresponds with the findings of Yen-Tsung Huang [38], who found that knowledge gained from joint ventures through the cooperation of both parties combines the obtained knowledge for merger with the original knowledge. This results in the ability of organizational research and development to increase the chances of success [49].…”

“…According to the study of Yen-Tsung Huang [38], knowledge gained from a joint venture through the cooperation of both parties to bring the obtained knowledge to merge with the original knowledge can result in the ability of research and development in the organizations to increase the chances of success. According to the study by Sohel Ahmad and Roger G. Schroeder [39], adaptation in the process to use technological cooperation will be a driving force for mutual benefits.…”

Knowledge integration with customers in collaborative product development projects

“…As knowledge has come to be regarded as a proprietary competitive advantage, companies need to consider strategies to update their knowledge bases and bring innovation to their products (Huang, 2010). Changes in market demand occur rapidly, and product technologies increase in complexity; therefore, firms must find and use external knowledge in their internal knowledge creation processes (Grant and BadenFuller, 2004).…”