RFS Advance Access originally published online on June 23, 2006
Review of Financial Studies 2007 20(1):189-233; doi:10.1093/rfs/hhl007
The Role of Knowhow Acquisition in the Formation and Duration of Joint Ventures
Swiss Banking Institute, University of Zurich
Department of Finance and Economics, HEC School of Management Paris
Address correspondence to: Swiss Banking Institute, University of Zurich, Plattenstrasse 14, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland, or e-mail: habib{at}isb.unizh.ch.
We analyze the role of knowhow acquisition in the formation and duration of joint ventures. Two parties become partners in a joint venture to benefit from each others knowhow. Joint operations provide each party with the opportunity to acquire part of its partners knowhow. A partys increased knowhow provides the impetus for the dissolution of the joint venture. We characterize the conditions under which dissolution takes place, identify the party that buys out its partner, determine the time to dissolution, establish its comparative statics, and examine the implications of knowledge acquisition for the desirability of joint venture formation. (JEL code: G34)