In recent years, India, the world's second most populous country, has been emergingudas one of the fastest growing economies with enormous market potential. Since theudbeginning of India's economic liberalisation in the late 1980s, it has been attractingudforeign investment from around the world. However, for many foreign companies,udforming international joint ventures (UVs) with a local partner remains the preferredudinternational business mode for entering the Indian market. Based on nine AustralianIndianudUVs, this thesis empirically examines three major areas of the UV literature,udviz., factors influencing the motivation to form UVs with a local partner, theudcomplexity and the extent of the firm's involvement in the UV formation process andudthe factors responsible for UV success during the implementation stage.udMultiple case study method was used to conduct the research. A combination ofuddeductive and inductive processes was applied to capture the complexity anduddynamism of the real world situation. Primarily, the context of the research isudpresented as it is reflected in the extant literature and the available marketudinformation. The conceptual framework, research question and proposition sets wereudframed on the basis of this research context. In-depth, face-to-face interviews wereudconducted with the management of nine UVs, their Australian parents and their Indianudhosts. Prior theories were employed as templates for measuring outcomes. Directudobservations, company documentation and other secondary information were used toudassist in the interpretation of the primary data.udThis research has determined that UVs are an important means of Australianudcompanies doing international business in India. It has established that the motivationudto select IJVs as an international business mode is influenced by a host ofudenvironmental and organisational-specific variables. However, the extent of thisudinfluence varies with the relative importance of each of these variables. This studyudalso has demonstrated that the UV formation process between an Australian companyudand an Indian host is a complex and time-consuming one. It is ascertained that theudAustralian-Indian IJVs face fewer difficulties during the implementation stage thanudanticipated earlier at the IJV motivation stage. Nonetheless, the research hasudconfirmed the need for assistance from local partners in overcoming anyudenvironmental or organisational-specific difficulties. In addition, this research offersuda range of implications relevant to policy analysis and development, managementudpractice and theory development. Possibilities of further research, based on theudfindings reported here, are suggested.
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