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Revision with unchanged content. The current economic situation is characterized by an increasing importance of globalization, a rapid and heavy competitive market structure. The world of international business experiences drastic developments which offer opportunities but also challenges and risks. Strong rivalries and competition encourage the intentions of multinationals to join forces in order to penetrate elected markets. Such cooperative strategies represent an exciting theory, but their implementation turns out to be very difficult. In this work the author examines in particular the nature of international joint ventures and the strategic intensions for multinationals to form this cooperation. This is demonstrated by means of a case study in the consumer electronic industry, LG Electronics and Philips Electronics are the two participants who formed an international joint venture. It is illustrated how their motives and reasons have evolved and changed over time, and how the different cultures influence the overall performance of this form of cooperation. This work is supposed to comprehend the motives which drive companies to build joint ventures, on an international basis, and with multinational partners.

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completed her studies as Bachelor of Arts inInternational Business Administration after severalstays abroad and an apprenticeship inInternational Administration. Her alloverinternational orientation in education enabled herto find a job in a global company where she nowenjoys working in the Internet Advertisingmarketplace.

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