JOINT VENTURE PERFORMANCE REVISITED: JAPANESE FOREIGN SUBSIDIARIES WORLDWIDE1

Our evidence from the analysis of 27,974 foreign subsidiaries challenges conventional notions about joint venture performance. We find joint ventures to have survival rates and perceived financial performance levels comparable to wholly-owned subsidiaries. Further, majority-owned joint ventures had a 50 percent higher survival rate than co- and minority-owned joint ventures. This evidence suggests future research explore why joint ventures endure as well as they do, and why wholly-owned subsidiaries have exit rates equal to joint ventures.