Essays on equity joint ventures, uncertainty and experience

Amidst increasingly global competition during the last decades, we observed a sharp increase in the number of joint ventures. As a result, joint ventures have triggered considerable enthusiasm in recent years among scholars and practitioners. However, studies have shown that most joint ventures fail to live up to their expectations. Foremost among the complexities that can explain their lack of success, several studies have identified the diverse sources of uncertainty surrounding the joint venture, and argued that the joint venture parents’ prior (joint venture) experience can have an important moderating impact. However, there is little consensus on how these effects matter at various joint venture stages – which include formation, subsequent stability or adjustments, and ongoing and post-venture outcomes. This dissertation consists of a collection of studies of how different types of uncertainty and experience influence joint venture formation, stability and performance. It draws on real options, organizational learning and transaction cost theories and aims to provide a coherent picture of how uncertainty and experience influence each of a joint venture’s life-cycle stages.