SELECTING PARTNERS FOR JOINT INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS VENTURES: A GUIDE FOR SMALL/MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

Abstract

Regardless  of the type of business,  all investors,  whether foreign  or local,  take a partner  into a join/• venture for  the purpose of gaining from  that partner some skill or resource that  they  lack.  In these very austere lines in Nigeria's economic  history,  international  business joint-ventures no doubt are veritable means by which Nigerian  business  can grow by leaps and contribute  even more rapidly to the realization of the goals of SAP.  Failure rate among international joint-venture  are relatively high and one major failure factor  commonly  identifiable  with  this  situation  is  wrong  choice  (or suboptimal  selection)  of partners.   For  profitable  alliances,  the selection of associates involves a special  decision  process,  one which  is  usually  initiated  by  the foreign partner.  £existing typologies of reasons for selection are inadequate.  Ideally,  such  a  typology  should be  defined through  a specific   interdisciplinary  research project  examining  the  nature of the  motivation involved.  In the end, however, partner selection and negotiation should ideally be a game in which there is no winner or loser among the players.