Title: The hazard rate of evolution of international joint ventures: system-triggered or action-triggered

Authors: Hsien-Jui Chung, Cher-Min Fong, Cher-Hung Tseng

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, 160 San-Hsing, Min-Hsiung, Chia-Yi 621, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, National Sun Yat Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, National Pingtung Institute of Commerce, Pingtung, Taiwan

Abstract: This study aims to explore whether the evolution of organisations is caused by the network system or by their own voluntary actions. This topic has deep implications for the issue of determinism/voluntarism. The determinism viewpoint suggests that organisational life is dominated by environmental conditions. The voluntarism viewpoint advocates that organisations should decide their own futures. This study explores the relative effects of network system environments (system factors) and voluntary actions (action factors) on organisational evolution. International joint ventures (IJVs) in Taiwan are selected as research targets. We adopt an event history analysis to test a sample of 51 IJVs. Empirical results show that IJV evolution is triggered mainly by system factors and that action factors have little explanatory power over IJV evolution. These results imply that the determinism viewpoint is more solid than the voluntarism viewpoint and that the relationship between determinism and voluntarism is more likely to be the opposite in Taiwan|s industry context.

Keywords: hazard rate; joint ventures; action trigger; system trigger.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2003.003826

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 2003 Vol.4 No.4, pp.282 - 300

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

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