Conflicts and Elements of Success

Abstract

Japanese-German third-country cooperative ventures in China tend to enjoy the benefit of more flexibility compared to other forms of internationalization. However, this makes monitoring more difficult for the partners, as loose forms of collaboration do not allow fast and effective access particularly when changes to strategy are made in the parent companies. The advantage of flexibility is especially apparent when such ventures come to an end. Selling a foreign subsidiary is frequently very difficult and often incurs a loss, whereas a third-country cooperative venture can be brought to an end with comparatively little effort (Haak, 2001b, 2002b).