What Determines Joint Venture Termination? A Commentary Essay

Joint venture (JV) research continues to flourish as researchers seek to advance our understanding of why so many JVs fail. Cui and Kumar (this issue) take a contingency approach to explain how and why business relatedness may provide new insights as to what determines JV termination. This commentary essay evaluates their study against the backdrop of a considerable literature on JV success and failure and provides guidelines as to how future research may advance the field even further. The commentary concludes that scholars need to (1) develop and position their research in a coherent, theoretical framework suitable for investigating the complex JV phenomena, (2) pay attention to the relational nature of JVs as they evolve over time, and (3) avoid mismatches between levels of theory, measurement and analysis when conducting JV research.