International Joint Venture between the U.S. and Japan

－Conflicts and Corporate Cultural Reconstructions－

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated the nature of the culturally-based conflicts that occurred in an international joint venture (50-50) between a multinational American company and a large Japanese firm in the food industry, located in Tokyo, Japan during the period of 1973-2015. An in-depth interview methodology was used to collect information from six participants who were board members of the International Joint Venture (IJV), including its President and top executives, a director of corporate planning and an employee of the IJV union member. These participants were both from American and Japanese sides, and represented a variety of different functions. Cultural conflicts arising from differences in time and social orientations, and the cultural distance between typical business practices in the two parent companies and IJV (i.e., timeframe for profit or market share, different emphasis on brand-building or issues related to the local adaptation of products) are described. Strategies of corporate cultural reconstructions were adopted in order to minimize these conflicts. This study is of importance not only to enhance existing cultural theories such as Hofstede’ and Globe’s study (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) but also to stimulate positive theoretical extensions to draw implications to other emerging market for IJV in successful management.