American Joint Ventures Research Articles

Housing the nascent middle class: the first high-rise planned community in post-war Hong Kong

ABSTRACT How have high-density, high-rise planned communities become the predominant housing choice of Hong Kong residents and a vital feature of the city’s vertical urbanism? This article reconstructs the history of a gigantic housing estate called Mei Foo Sun Chuen, which was completed in Hong Kong between 1968 and 1978 by an American joint venture led by Mobil Oil Corporation. The estate was redeveloped from a former oil depot into a vast housing estate of 99 residential towers for 80,000 tenants. By the time of its completion, the estate was the largest privately financed residential development in the world, and it was heralded as the first high-rise planned community in Hong Kong. In studying Mei Foo Sun Chuen, this article discusses how a mega-scale residential development established a new dimension of Hong Kong’s new middle-class housing market. It argues that Mei Foo Sun Chuen’s new idea of a planned community, its modern flat design, and its comprehensive housing management met the requirements of a nascent middle class, which demanded a comfortable lifestyle that Hong Kong’s traditional housing market could not provide at the time. Since the completion of Mei Foo Sun Chuen, its popular housing model has proliferated throughout Hong Kong.

Cross-Cultural Interviewing and Counseling: Client-Oriented Perspective between Japanese and American Partners

AbstractWhen serving as an attorney for either a Japanese or an American joint venture partner on international engineer-procure-construct contracts on large, complex construction projects, have interviewing and counseling evolved because of the increasing use of client-oriented approaches to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in this multicultural environment? By using practical experiences from multiple projects spanning nearly two decades, most multicultural elements still exist but have evolved. This practical experience suggests that client-centered approaches enable better client results. The primary cultural changes have been the development of corporate leadership and understanding of the legal milieu on the part of client staffs, which facilitates client-oriented approaches. However, recognition of the cultural differences is still an important part of serving the clients’ needs in ADR efforts.

Motivating Vietnamese Employees and Managers in an American Joint-Venture: What a Challenge!

Paul Fierman, an American expatriate, was the General Director of the Vietnamese subsidiary of Chicago Food and Beverage Company (CFB Co.) in Haiphong. His three-year mandate consisted of preparing and executing, in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Regional Director, a strategy of creating synergy among three Asian subsidiaries, which should allow CFB Co. to conquer the three markets. Six months after his arrival, Paul was facing many problems, including a decrease in the sales of non-alcoholic beverages, the general lack of motivation of management in the subsidiary and unrest among the factory workers who wanted better wages and were threatening to unionize. Now, to save the subsidiary and also his career, Paul needed a rapid action plan to put the subsidiary back on track. He had to present and defend such an action plan during his next meeting with the Asia Pacific Regional Director of CFB Co. This case is useful in examining the challenges in managing in a foreign environment.

Crossing East-West boundaries: Knowledge sharing in intercultural business networks

Strategic business nets are becoming increasingly important in the arena of global competition. This article examines the influence of ethnic culture on knowledge sharing in different types of intercultural business nets. Knowledge sharing is essential for the functioning of business networks as it influences the cooperation and outcomes that firms are able to achieve. Our basic assumption is that the nature of the cultures involved and the type of network both influence the knowledge-sharing barriers. This is investigated on the basis of two conceptual frameworks. The first is a framework identifying different types of strategic nets and the requirements they impose for knowledge sharing. Subsequently, a culture-classification scheme based on the individualism–collectivism and the vertical–horizontal dimensions is derived. The strategic net and cultural types are then combined in an intercultural business-net framework, and the opportunities for and barriers to knowledge sharing are analysed using examples representing Asian–European and Asian–North American joint ventures and networks.

Marriages between Asian, American, and Dutch Corporations: A Matter of Cultural Fit?

In this paper two studies about the impact of cultural differences on corporate marriages are discussed. Very often it is hypothesized that culture has a large impact on joint ventures and mergers, however, few studies come up with empirical evidence. To explore such culture's consequences two studies were conducted, where different research approaches were used. In the first study into Japanese and American joint ventures in Indonesia, an etic research approach was chosen. Leadership styles and stress were examined in particular, as effects of differences in national cultures. On most of the concepts we measured, Japanese managers seem to fit better in an Indonesian context than American managers do. In the second study into Japanese-Dutch and American-Dutch mergers, an emic research approach is used. Two American-Dutch mergers and one Japanese-Dutch merger are currently the subject of research. The focus of the second study is on the acculturation process of the two merging entities. Based on the preliminary results and an extensive literature review, it is concluded that Japanese-Dutch companies are more difficult to combine than American-Dutch companies, although culture clashes also occur in American-Dutch combinations.

Brita products buys out American joint venture

Brita products buys out American joint venture

Training Chinese Managers for Leadership: Six Cross-Cultural Principles

I deas of leadership and of what constitutes leadership behavior represent one of the most difficult intercultural challenges within American joint ventures in the People's Republic of China. Chinese and Americans have acquired such contrasting sets of cultural understandings about leadership, each set backed by an impressive history, tradition, and body of literature, that at times they seem unalterably opposed.

Same bed, different dreams: working relationships in Sino—American joint ventures

Despite the fact that tens of thousands of international joint ventures, involving billions of dollars of foreign investment, have been established in China since the reform movement began in 1979, little is known about how the local and foreign managers view each other and work together in these ventures. This omission is particularly glaring since so much of the prescriptive advice for doing business in China asserts that a trusting and cooperative relationship is a key to success. We interviewed a variety of managers in established Sino—American joint ventures to shed light on how these managers understand their relationships. The results are somewhat disconcerting. The views that the American and Chinese managers have of each other are not particularly positive. We chronicle these views and then discuss how these results can both set the stage for subsequent research and also serve as a stimulus for managers in China today to examine their relationships and perhaps intervene to improve them.

Analyzing harsh words in a sensitive setting: American expatriates in communist China

This paper demonstrates the use of computer-aided text analysis to investigate a sensitive issue in organizations: hostile conflict. The context is American expatriate managers in the People's Republic of China. The text analyzed is from interviews of American expatriate managers describing conflicts with other Americans in the Sino–American joint venture and with their Chinese counterparts in the joint venture. We use interpretive categorization techniques and multidimensional scaling analysis, frequency counts and context ratings of the conflict descriptions to develop and investigate research questions regarding the use of hostile words in a sensitive setting (communist China). We discuss the disparities among the text analysis methods and why some may not be appropriate for examining organizational conflicts in foreign countries. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Joint ventures in Asia and multicultural management

The current failure rate of European and North American joint ventures with Asian partners in Asia is high. A major cause is culture clash. Frederic Swierczek and Georges Hirsch present an Asian Frame of Reference on Multicultural Management and make suggestions to improve the success rate of international joint ventures in this region.

Environmental Risks and Joint Venture Sharing Arrangements

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have responded to the open-door policies of socialist countries in recent years by investing in their economies through joint ventures. MNEs must formulate their investment strategies to control and manage the environmental risks peculiar to a traditional centrally planned economy (CPE) in which contextual and transactional environments are blurred. Joint venture sharing arrangements may be structured to control exposures to uncertainties and to align the interests of transactional parties, mostly state-owned enterprises, to those of the venture. This study tests the hypothesis that a foreign investor's share in a joint venture in a CPE is inversely correlated with (1) the amount of uncertainties and risks and (2) the external dependency of the venture on the contextual and transactional relationships of the host country. The hypothesis is supported by empirical evidence from data on American joint ventures in China.

Technology transfer by foreign firms to Iran

There is a growing body of literature on the subject of international transfer of technical knowledge and its role in bridging the technological gap that exists between advanced countries and less developed countries. Although the interest in this area has led economists to investigate more rigorously the process of technology transfer, so far this issue is still at the elementary phase of its development. It is agreed by most economists that more empirical study is necessary before any theoretical framework is agreed upon.' The traditional theory of foreign investment explains that foreign entrepreneurs bring with them to the less developed countries (LDCs) not only the needed capital but also the modern technology and necessary managerial knowhow that these countries require for their development. It is also believed that the foreign investors provide for the training of the local workers at the managerial and technical levels.2 A major criticism aimed at multinational corporations is related to the type of technology that is transferred. It is argued that the technology that is transmitted through the multinational corporation is not 'appropriate' to the conditions existing in the LDCs. In comparison with the advanced countries, LDCs are mostly located in the tropical and subtropical zones and therefore have a different climate with different temperatures, humidity levels, and seasons. Their factors of production are locally available at quite different proportions. Educated managers, skilled workers, technicians and professionals are relatively scarce. Given these conditions, if a technique that is designed for an advanced country is transferred to an LDC, it will result in a distorting effect on the economy as a whole. To avoid this problem, it is necessary for the multinational corporation to adapt its technology to the requirements that exist in the LDC.3 This paper is an attempt to investigate some of the problems of technology transfer by foreign firms to Iran, with specific concentration on the following issues: (1) technology adaptation; (2) labor training; (3) research and development (R & D). The data related to this study were collected by the author from the Iranian American Joint Venture (IAJV) firms that were operating in the manufacturing sector of the Iranian economy during the 1971-76 period. A total of 27 firms were surveyed.