Collaboration in Technology. An Exploratory Study of United States Involvement in International Cooperative Technology Programs.

Abstract

Any two organizations are likely to have difficulty cooperating to achieve a common objectives because of conflict over subgoals, methods or personalities. Two company divisions, two government agencies, or two military services, cooperating on ventures may experience interdepartmental conflict. But in each case a supraorganization (the company management, the President, the Secretary of Defense) exists which has the power, control and the final work to resolve conflict. In the international context, however, relations between organizations from different nations cannot be governed by appeal to a supra-organizations; no organization exists which both organizations recognize as sovereign. Therefore an international cooperative effort, or joint venture, represents a unique extreme in cooperation. International joint ventures are predicted to become increasingly more important because they allow companies to exercise their advantages and cover their disadvantages. However, the record of successful international joint ventures is poor. A 1971 study stated that fully one third of US joint ventures researched had ended in failure, defined as the dissolution of the partnership or a takeover by the US partner. Invariably, failure occurred during the early years of a partnership--if the venture lasted more than five years, it could be considered to be permanent. Reasons cited for venture 'divorce' included partner disagreement on marketing and distribution policy, differing response to expansion and success, production decisions made for political reasons, and communication barriers. The joint military program is of particular interest because it lies on the extreme margin of risk of the class of all cooperative enterprises.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1980
Accession Number
ADA143783

Entities

People

  • N. B. Ohman

Organizations

  • University of Texas at Austin

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • Climate Change
  • Congress
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Employment
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Geography
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • International Relations
  • Management Personnel
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Teamwork

Readers

  • Economics
  • Naval Engineering and Maritime Security
  • Strategic Security Studies