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Joint Ventures and the Property Rights Theory of the Firm: a Review of the Literature

Author

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  • Valeria Gattai
  • Piergiovanna Natale
Abstract
Joint ventures (JVs) are a very common form of inter-firm collaborations and, not surprisingly, the object of a vast literature, spanning from economics to management and business studies. Issues of control are central to the definition of JV, which naturally begs an interpretation in the context of the property rights theory (PRT) of the firm. In a series of seminal papers, Grossman, Hart and Moore (GHM) offer a rigorous framework to predict the allocation of control rights. Notably, under the standard assumptions of GHM, JVs are suboptimal. However, JVs are not suboptimal in more general settings where some of the original framework’s assumptions are relaxed. In the context of the PRT, this paper surveys more than 20 contributions that deal with the optimality of JVs under contract incompleteness. Questioning GHM’s assumptions, the authors of these contributions unveil relevant circumstances in which JV outperforms sole ownership. Despite contributions being scattered over time and bibliographical space, we believe enough material has accumulated over 25 years of economic modelling to encourage some systematization. The discussion is organized in an intuitive and non-technical way; particular effort is devoted to analyse each contribution in detail and to provide a unitary framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Valeria Gattai & Piergiovanna Natale, 2014. "Joint Ventures and the Property Rights Theory of the Firm: a Review of the Literature," Working Papers 287, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:287
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2019. "Incomplete contracts, limited liability, and the optimality of joint ownership," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Müller, Daniel & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2016. "Transaction costs and the property rights approach to the theory of the firm," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 92-107.
    3. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2017. "Incomplete contracts, shared ownership, and investment incentives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 153-165.
    4. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2016. "The negotiators who knew too much: Transaction costs and incomplete information," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 33-37.
    5. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2021. "Optimal ownership of public goods under asymmetric information," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    6. Valeria Gattai & Piergiovanna Natale, 2016. "Optimal Ownership Regime in the Presence of Investment Spillovers," Working Papers 332, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised 29 Mar 2016.
    7. Charlie Joyez, 2019. "Shared Ownership in the International Make or Buy Dilemma," GREDEG Working Papers 2019-04, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    8. Gattai, Valeria & Natale, Piergiovanna, 2016. "Investment spillovers and the allocation of property rights," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 109-113.
    9. Charlie Joyez, 2017. "Firm heterogeneity and the integration trilemma: The utility of Joint ventures in integration versus outsourcing models," Working Papers DT/2017/09, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Incomplete contracts; Property rights; Joint venture; Joint control; Joint ownership;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures

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