Investigating the Interactive Effects of Information Exchange, Relationship Capital and Environmental Uncertainty on Joint Venture Performance (The Case Study: Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Industriy EPC Contractors)

There have been very few studies on joint ventures in Iran. However, in Iran, as a country with an oil-based economy, huge projects are being carried out in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the form of joint cooperation. Sharing complementary resources where they are unable to develop such resources by themselves causes companies to achieve the project objectives. Studying the factors affecting the success of joint cooperation, considering the greatness of oil, gas and petrochemical industry projects, can prevent from the failure of the project and can help achieve goals within the proposed framework for time, costs, quality and requirements can have great impact on the country economy. In this study, the aim is to investigate the direct effects of information exchange on the performance of joint ventures with two capital factors (mutual trust and mutual obligations) as the intermediary factors and also environmental uncertainty as a moderating factor on joint ventures of Iranian companies.  

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of methodology. The statistical population of the study includes all the eligible companies of the industrial design and manufacturing group in the field of oil, gas and petrochemicals. Then, according to Cochran’s calculations, a sample size of 31 companies was determined and the researcher could contact with 32 companies. The data were collected using questionnaire and were then analyzed using structural equation modeling and Smart PLS software.

The results showed that the exchange of information not only directly but also through mutual trust and mutual commitment has a significantly positive effect on the partnership performance. Moreover, the results showed that environmental uncertainty has no positive or negative mediating role on the effect of information exchange on mutual trust and mutual obligations. But it has a positive effect on the effect of mutual trust and mutual obligations on partnership performance. Environmental uncertainty has also a negative effect on the effect of information exchange on performance.  

In partnerships, good performance is the result of improvements and capital changes in relationships between coalition partners. Managers need to be aware that mutual exchange of information initiates a cycle of relationship improvement, in other words, relational capital; because the exchange of information helps to start and build relationships and also mutual trust and mutual obligations. It means that partners need an active exchange of information in partnership and they need to make attempts so that they can improve relationships at the beginning and at different stages. In general, environmental uncertainty has significantly positive effects on the effect of mutual trust and obligations on performance, but has no effects on the effect of information exchange on mutual trust and obligations. To achieve high performance, it is first necessary to solve the information exchange problem. Following the partnership, the exchange of information improves the relationship between companies and leads to an increase in the quality of the relationship capital (mutual trust and mutual obligations), and this leads to the development of the coalition. Promoting mutual trust and obligations allows partners to collaborate in harmony. Thus, mutual trust and mutual obligations act as a mediating variable between information exchange and partnership performance.