2014考研英語復(fù)習(xí)：模擬試題之閱讀理解專項(xiàng)練習(xí)(四十八)_跨考網(wǎng)

　　2014考研英語復(fù)習(xí)：模擬試題之閱讀理解專項(xiàng)練習(xí)(四十八)

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　　The term "joint international business venture", joint venture for short, has come to mean many things to many people. It sometimes is taken to mean any joint relationship between one or more foreign firms and one or more local firms. Such a broad definition is excluded here. Joint venture will be taken to mean joint ownership of an operation in which at least one of the partners is foreign based.

　　Joint ventures can take many forms. A foreign firm may take a majority share, a minority share, or an equal share in ownership. While it is not necessary to have financial control or to have operating control, some firms refuse to use the joint venture form if it is not possible to have a majority position in ownership. There are firms that have few qualms about holding minority position, however, so long as they can have operating control. They achieve this through technical-aid, management, or supply contracts.

　　It should be recognized that maintaining operating control is sometimes difficult if one does not have financial control too. Objectives of the participants may diverge; when they do,financial control becomes important. Management may wish to reinvest earnings while the majority of the board may wish earnings distributed as dividends. Unless policy issues of this kind can be settled amicably, lack of financial control can prove to be very unsatisfactory, if not fatal.

　　Many joint ventures emerge as matters of necessity: that is, no single firm is willing to assume the risks entailed, while a consortium of firms is. Large, capital-intensive, long-lived investments are natural candidates for the joint venture. Exploitation of resource deposits often is done by a consortium of several petroleum or mining firms. Roles are parceled out even though each phase of the operation is owned jointly. One firm does the actual mining, another provides transportation, and still another does the refining and extraction. There is a wide variety of combinations.

　　Also the joint venture can pose problems, especially if it is an enforced marriage of partners. For many ventures in small countries, it is difficult to find a suitable local partner, that is, one with sufficient capital and know how to be able to contribute to the partnership. In some developing countries, a small handful of families control the entire locally-owned part of the industrial structure. Under these circumstances, a joint venture merely insulates them further from independent, foreign-owned plants that would compete against them. For this and other reasons, the only suitable partner may end up being the government itself. Most multinational firms, however, shy away from such arrangements where possible.