Digestibility and asymmetric information in the choice between acquisitions and joint ventures: where’s the beef?

✍ Scribed by Jean-François Hennart; Sabine B. Reddy

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 25 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(200002)21:2<191::aid-smj78>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

In response to our empirical findings that, contrary to the predictions of the information asymmetry hypothesis, joint ventures are not more, but instead less likely when parents belong to different industries, Balakrishnan and Reurer argue that (1) the information asymmetry and the indigestibility hypotheses are theoretically complementary and (2) our results may be affected by the characteristics of our sample. In fact, the goal of our study was not to deny the theoretical validity of alternative theories of joint ventures, but only to ascertain their relative explanatory power. We therefore agree that both theories are complementary, but show that our findings are not explained by our sample, but instead by the way we test the information asymmetry hypothesis.