Cultural collisions in international joint venture decision making: a social constructionist perspective

Summary form only given. The author has explored the different social constructions associated with production technology among Japanese and American engineers and technical managers in start-up international joint ventures (IJVs) and has examined how these differences affect joint venture decisions. The data used are reports from critical incident interviews conducted in case studies of three Japanese-American manufacturing IJVs between October 1990 and March 1991. Simon (1976) proposes that administrative decision-making is composed of two premises: one based on purpose, the other based on scientific and practical knowledge about the effects of particular decisions, and that the final decision depends upon the relative weight placed on these two premises. In the case of international joint ventures, the present data suggest that the purposive element may not even be clear (or at least not equally clear) to all involved parties, and the practical knowledge about the effects of decisions is obscured when hidden cultural assumptions are at play. Thus differing conceptions of production technology issues may hinder technical and business decision-making in IJVs.<>