Resource complementarity and international joint venture performance in Korea

The resource-based view of joint ventures (JVs) posits that JV performance is driven by JV partners’ ability to create synergy by joining complementary resources. We examine the synergy generated from resource complementarity in the context of JVs formed between developed market firms and local Korean firms. Besides the independent effects of both partners’ complementary resources on JV performance, we examined whether a joint effect on JV performance existed. We found that both technology-related resources and local knowledge-related resources affect JV performance independently and simultaneously. The impact of local knowledge-related resources on JV performance increased with the level of technology-related resources, and the impact of technology-related resources on JV performance increased with the level of local knowledge-related resources. Technology- and local knowledge-related resources are thus not simply additive; mutually enhancing synergies exist between the two resources. This finding further suggests that the synergistic effect of both partners’ complementary resources on JV performance can be substantive.