Acquisition and Joint Venture Behavior of Swedish Manufacturing Firms

Acquisitions and joint ventures can be seen as alternative ways to implement a change in a firm's strategic position. In this article we combine the perspectives of economics and organization theory in a simple propositional framework to study acquisition and joint venture behavior of Swedish firms. The hypotheses are confronted with empirical data from 24 sectors of the manufacturing industry. It is concluded that industry concentration and financial strength are important determinants of both acquisition and joint venture behavior while differences in corporate goals and the characteristics of the other party in the relationship