The impact of structural and attitudinal antecedents on the instability of international joint ventures: The mediating role of asymmetrical changes in commitment

•The study links the IJV initiation stage (t0) with the IJV reconfiguration stage (t1) and examines how changes from earlier to later stages feed forward into IJV instability.•We theoretically establish and empirically validate that asymmetrical changes in structural (i.e., interdependence and trust) and attitudinal (i.e., trust) antecedents affect IJV instability mediated through asymmetrical changes in commitment.•Violating the norm of reciprocity increases the likelihood of IJV instability.

Prior literature on international joint ventures (IJVs) has primarily focused on different stages of the IJV process such as the initiation or reconfiguration stage. However, extant research has largely neglected how changes from one stage to another impact on the stability of IJVs. To advance existing knowledge in the field, the present study links the IJV initiation stage (t0) with the IJV reconfiguration stage (t1) and examines how changes from earlier to later stages feed forward into IJV instability. To this end, we develop a model in which asymmetrical changes in structural antecedents (i.e., partners’ interdependence and learning) and one attitudinal antecedent (i.e., trust) feed forward into IJV instability mediated by asymmetrical changes in the partners’ commitment. The core underlying theoretical knowledge is that asymmetrical changes violate the norm of reciprocity enhancing the instability of IJVs. Testing our hypotheses on a dataset of 97 IJVs validates our mediation model concluding that asymmetrical shifts in partners’ commitments over the course of collaboration are the central detrimental factor to IJV stability.