Revisiting research on IJV exit : more questions than answers

While International Joint Ventures (IJVs) are a well acknowledged and frequently implemented organizational mode, especially with regard to international market entry strategies, they are also prone to conflicts of interests, inefficiencies, and unintended termination. Accordingly, past research has been dominated by studies that attempted to identify success factors for managing IJVs based upon archive data. Success respectively failure is frequently defined based upon the fact that IJVs "disappeared" from the data-set. As such, "exit" became the epitome for closing down ineffective, failing IJVs although withdrawal may in some cases a sign of success if, for instance, the initial objectives of partners have been achieved. Beyond such misconceptions there is no stock-take of what is known about the different types, measures, contexts, and determinants of IJV exit as to take research to the next stage. This paper fills this research gap by comprehensively analyzing the IJV exit literature as an integral part of IJV research, focusing on studies that either apply IJV termination or IJV longevity as a measure of IJV exit. A systematic overview of the contexts and determinants that influence IJV exit is provided and major implications of our findings for directing future research are discussed. -- Exit ; International Joint Venture ; Longevity ; Performance ; Termination