AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

SUNDAY
activity for MNC competence creation. (For more information, please contact: Sean Tsuhsiang Hsu, University of
Pittsburgh, USA: thsu@katz.pitt.edu)
R&D Offshoring and Complexity: Performance Implications in Clinical Trials
Metin Onal Vural, IE Business School
I analyze the effects of R&D offshoring using a dataset from clinical trials. Such project work is characterized by
varying levels of complexity and requires supervision and management of the process by coordinating
organizations. I analyze several dimensions of offshoring of clinical trial projects and I look at the extent to
which complexity plays a role in managing relationships with partners and overseeing distributed tasks related
to clinical trial processes. I find that internationalization, collocation and proportion of dispersion of project sites
are all significant factors affecting the successful completion of clinical trials. Using a unique dataset that
comprises 227 clinical trials including 4569 clinical trial sites between the years of 1981 and 2009, I examine the
effects of offshoring, complexity, dispersion, and collocation on the performance of project work. Despite
economic benefits offshoring seems to be detrimental to project performance in this area and complex trials
perform worse. I discuss the implications of my findings for theories of innovation, knowledge management and
project work in international settings. (For more information, please contact: Metin Onal Vural, IE Business
School, Spain: onalv@yahoo.com)
Session: 1.3.14 - Interactive
Track: 4 - Strategy, Alliances, and Competitiveness
Managing International Joint Ventures
Presented On: July 1, 2012 - 13:00-14:15
Chair: Daniel Rottig, Florida Gulf Coast University
Toward a Social Capital-Based View of Economic Transactions in the Context of International Joint Ventures
Daniel Rottig, Florida Gulf Coast University
This paper sets out to explore a social-capital based perspective of economic transactions in the context of
international joint ventures in order to gain a better understanding about the processes inherent in this
organizational form. Transaction cost-based perspectives of international joint ventures (IJVs) suggest that IJVs,
as a hybrid form of governing economic transactions, inhere a certain extent of uncertainty and threat of
opportunism, and put forth such processes as dominant control by one parent organization, commitment of and
cooperation between the parent organizations to effectively manage this type of interorganizational cooperation.
However, economic-based perspectives do not explain how the aforementioned processes may be developed. A
conceptual framework is advanced which emphasizes the need to include a social capital-based perspective into
such economic-based considerations in order to explain the antecedents of these processes. Furthermore, social
capital is conceptualized to moderate the positive relationship between cultural distance and conflict between
parents of IJVs and, therefore, to reduce the likelihood of the latter. In so doing, this paper aspires to provide a
clearer and more realistic account of the economic exchange relations within international joint ventures. (For
more information, please contact: Daniel Rottig, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA: drottig@fgcu.edu)
The Dissolution of International Joint Ventures: A Legitimacy Perspective
Chong He, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Gongming Qian, Chinese University of Hong Kong
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
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