Management controls in automotive international joint ventures involving Chinese parent companies

• Flexibility in international joint ventures (JVS) is important and a shared but split control style is recommended. • Chinese partners used to have learning as their main objective in an IJV but this has been replaced by profit, growth and market share. • The most significant shifts in control between partners involve human resource management and research and development. • When foreign partners insist on adherence to their own management philosophy, culture clashes occur. • Negotiation is a part of daily life in the IJVs, and it occurs at both executive and managerial levels, depending upon the significance of the item.