Contribution-based profit-sharing scheme for joint ventures/Pelno pasidalijimo tarp imoniu schema, pagrista patirtomis islaidomis.
Hsueh, Sung-Lin ; Yan, Min-Ren
1. Introduction
The construction industry is characterized by sporadic projects and
fierce competition (Cheng et al. 2001). Stepping into the globalization era, the construction industry will face a more severe business
environment. Joint Venture (JV) is considered, by international
construction firms, one of the most efficient methods of reducing
financial risks (Bing et al. 1999a; Bing et al. 1999b). Today, in order
to build competitiveness, construction firms may want to reduce costs
and increase profits through coalitions (Proverbs, Holt 2000), while the
established cost advantage can also bring more market opportunities to
the participants (Lo et al. 2007). In addition, a strong coalition can
enhance the team qualification, which is especially important for
projects delivered by qualification-based selection system (Lo, Yan
2009). However, previous studies have indicated that construction firms
are mainly provisional contracting organizations and thus are difficult
to establish a long-term cooperative relationship (Koskela 2003;
Wegelius-Lehtonen 2001). Moreover, large-scale companies may have a
manipulative mind-set, which often causes profit-sharing problems
adverse to benefit sharing. Such a partnership will lead to mistrust
between the cooperating parties (McIvor 2001). Hence, it is difficult to
realize coalition (Owen 1995) when there are unfair and inappropriate
profit-sharing modes within the competitor partnerships unable to meet
their expected profit.
To form a JV team, companies have to select partner(s), assign each
party's work scope, and especially, negotiate the sharing of
profits, which is usually done by arranging separate amounts of the
expected total profits or by sharing proportionally, depending on the
collaborating relationships among the JV team. However, since each JV
party is pursuing its maximum profits, the conflicts of interest make
the sharing of profits always a challenging task (Yan 2011).
Conventionally, construction JV firms will negotiate their individual
work range and ratio of investment before a cooperative agreement is
reached, and then distribute the profits based on the ratio of
investment. As such a profit-sharing mode only considers the capitals
invested by the cooperative firms, and neglects other contributions of
the individual firms to the project, the firm possessing core competence and contribution may often be dissatisfied with the profit-sharing.
Although JV may bring benefits to the cooperative firms in different
degrees, such as costs reduction (Proverbs, Holt 2000), financial
advantages, information sharing (Simchi-Levi et al. 2001), resource
complementation (Nicolini 2001), etc., there are few cases of long-term
relationships between the cooperative firms in practice. The main reason
is that the JV participators have not found an equilibrium point of
interest distribution in the partnership. If the profit generated
through JVs can meet the expectations of all participators, and the
profit gained by each participator is higher than independent
contracting, the firms will all be willing to participate in the JV.
Meanwhile, both parties can gain better beneficial results through
mutual sharing of helpful resources (Dainty et al. 2001).
This paper will initially review costs advantages and
profit-sharing issues of JV firms, and then use cooperative game theory
and Shapley Value to propose a model to calculate profit-sharing of
construction joint ventures. Construction firms can use this
profit-sharing model as an important negotiation basis in selecting JV
partners. At the end, a case study is conducted to describe how a
foreign construction firm and a local construction company achieve a
successful partnership, earning higher profits for both parties than
independent contracting, even though their profit-sharing is not based
on ratio of investment.
2. Production costs and profits of JV
While selecting appropriate and good firm for JVs can reduce
investment risk and escalate work efficiency, it is also crucial to make
accurate estimation upon cost and gained profit comparing independent
with JVs before cooperation (Hsueh et al. 2007).
In independent operations, the profit of individual contractor is
shown in Eq. (1). Based on the cost structure and work items, the total
cost of a project can be divided into many costs for sub-work items.
However, in a coalition, the profit of the coalition can be increased by
combining the specialties of the coalition members. Coalition between
construction firms can obviously help enhance market competitiveness and
reduce costs. The cost function of a coalition is shown as Eq. (2).
[V.sub.i] = [C.sub.a] - [n.summation over (j=1)] [C.sub.ij], (1)
[V.sub.c] = [C.sub.a] - [n.summation over (j=1)] min [C.sub.cj],
(2)
[C.sub.a] = total project contract amount,
[V.sub.i] = total profit of contractor i,
[C.sub.ij] = contractor i's cost of work item j,
[V.sub.c] = total profit of coalition,
min [C.sub.cj] = the minimum cost of work item j.
Eq. (2) demonstrates the possibility to reduce project cost by a
proper coalition. For example, if a foreign firm with high technological
capacity cooperates with a local firm, the cost advantages of both
parties can be integrated to reduce total project costs.
Foreign construction firms possess affluent capital, technology,
and large-scale construction equipments, and are therefore,
advantageously positioned for projects requiring high-level technology.
However, as foreign construction firms are usually not familiar with
local environments, they will face higher costs in acquisition of human
resources. In addition, their administrative and marketing costs will be
high due to unstable project sources. The projects contracted by local
construction firms are usually of lower technological levels. Most local
firms lack high-level engineering staff and equipment, and will pay a
higher cost when contracting projects of higher technological levels.
Hence, they seldom contract such projects.
Local construction firms can promote business volume and reduce
costs through coalition. Independent operating construction firms have
less project sources due to capital limitations and qualification limits
for bidding on some construction projects. As mentioned above, foreign
construction firms can provide local firms with professional technology
and equipment, and local firms are relatively familiar with local
operation rules and can provide foreign firms with adequate human
resources. Through JV, foreign firms can reduce indirect costs and
increase bidding opportunities in local construction markets. In
addition, local firms can save a large sum of expenditures on equipment
and enhance their technological level to some degree.
3. Cooperative Games in JVs
It would be unfair especially for the party possessing with high
technology and pose the barrier on a cooperative relationship, if the
profit-sharing is set according to the proportion of capital invested.
From the perspective of cooperative game theory, JVs take not only
capital but also proficiency into consideration when distributing profit
(Ferrero et al. 1997; Jia, Yokoyama 2003). Though the party with higher
level of technology may have better profit-sharing, the profit gained
through JVs is higher than independent construction pattern.
There are applications of game theory in construction industry. Ho
(2005) modeled a bid compensation process as a non-cooperate static game
to develop appropriate bid compensation strategies for project owners.
Construction claims and financial renegotiation in PPP (public-private
partnership) projects were approached as a dynamic non-cooperate game
(Ho, Liu 2004; Ho 2007). Negotiations between BOT participants as well
as risk allocations are also analyzed by game theory (Medda 2007; Shen et al. 2007). Studies in cooperative game are limited in collaborating
formwork subcontractor (Perng et al. 2005) and subcontractors
cooperation in time (Asgari, Afshar 2008). Few studies have been drawn
on the construction JVs by using cooperative-game-theory approach.
3.1. Cooperative Game Theory
Game, refers to a confrontation state in which two, or more,
players pursue their respective goals (Rasmusen 2001). The actions taken
by the players to reach their goals are called strategy. The result of
strategy implementation is called the payoff (Kreps 1990). The three
factors to constitute a game are players, strategy, and payoff. In a
game, in order to maximize their interest, the players may choose to
compete or cooperate. The players will most often choose a method that
is most advantageous to them. In the game theory, the game is divided
into two forms: cooperative game and non-cooperative game. In a
non-cooperative game, the players pursue their individual interest and
choose their own strategy, and in deciding their own strategy, the
players will often consider other players (Owen 1995). In a cooperative
game, the players pursue a common goal to maximize the interest of the
team under certain constraint conditions of the game. If the cooperation
cannot generate a good result, the players will choose not to
participate in the game. To form a cooperative game, the interest
distribution between the players must meet the following two criteria:
1. Aggregation of the interest distributed to each player must be
equal to the interest gained by the coalition formed by all the players.
2. The interest obtained by each player after participating in the
coalition must not be less than the interest obtained in previous
independent operations.
In the game theory, how to obtain an equilibrium strategy is
regarded as a problem of the cooperative game in the form of coalition
(or in a general form), such as the strategic coalition between a local
construction firm and a foreign firm. When participating in the bidding
for a project, the construction firm will choose operation modes based
on evaluation of its own profitability. If the firm can obtain more
profit through coalition to reduce total coalition costs, it is possible
to form the coalition, and consequently the participants can share the
profit in a proper interest distribution method. The premise of a
cooperative game is mutual trust between the players and common
pursuance of maximum group interest.
3.2. The Shapley Value
Shapley Value is an important topic in the cooperative game theory.
It is the expected marginal amount contributed by a player to a
coalition (Shapley 1953). Thus, the concept of Shapley Value can be used
for sharing profit of JV projects based on the contributions of each JV
participant. By using Shapley Value, the interest obtained after
cooperation can be fairly shared. The distribution model is based on the
following three axioms (Shapley 1953):
Axiom 1, axiom of symmetry. The rewards of each player is only in
influenced by its contribution to the game, and not affected by its own
preference or status.
Axiom 2, axiom of efficiency. The rewards generated by the game
must be completely distributed to all the players.
Axiom 3, axiom of aggregation. If a player is simultaneously
presented in two games, the rewards of this player are the aggregation
of its rewards obtained from both games.
For each participator i, the Shapley Value calculates the
aggregation of the contributions made by i to all the coalitions, as
shown in Eq. (3):
[[phi].sub.i] = [summation over (S[subset or equal to]N)] (s -
1)!(n - s)!/n! {v(s) - v(S - {i})}, (3)
[[phi].sub.i] is the Shapley Value of participator i, and is the
aggregation of the contributions made by i to all the coalitions in
which it may be present.
N represents the set of all the members that may participate in the
cooperative game, and the number of elements included is n.
S is the cooperative coalition, including member i, and is a subset
of N. The number of elements included in S is s.
v is the profit gained by a coalition made up of multiple players,
and v(S) is the maximum possible profit gained by S coalition.
v(S-{i}) is the maximum possible profit gained by S coalition, not
including member i.
(s - 1)!(n - 5)1!/n! represents the possibility of i joining the
S-{i} coalition.
In the circumstance of JVs, the coalition formed is two
construction firms T{1, 2}. V(1) represents the profit gained when the
first firm (P1) contracts the construction project independently, V(2)
represents the profit gained when the second firm (P2) contracts the
construction project independently, V(12) represents the profit gained
when the two firms cooperate in the form of a JV in contracting the
project, and V([phi]) represents the profit when the firms do not
contract the project.
Hence, according to the definition of Shapley Value, the reward of
P1 ([phi] 1) in the coalition is: [phi] 1 = 1/2{ V(1) - V([phi])} + 1/2{
V(12) - V(2)} }; The reward of P2 ([phi] 2) is: [phi] 2 = 1/2{ V(2) -
V([phi])} + 1/2{ V(12) - V(1)}.
4. Case Study
The majority of construction projects in Taiwan are located in
western areas, and local development of construction in eastern areas
has been slow for decades. In order to promote industrial and economic
development in eastern areas, the Taiwanese government began
construction of the "National Su Hwa Highway" in 2003, to be
constructed concurrently with both the West Taiwan Highway and
Expressway Network to form a complete highway network around Taiwan, and
realize the government goal of balancing local construction development.
The planned "National Su Hwa Highway" is 102 kilometers long
and the project costs are as high as NT$178.7 billion, with an
investment scale second only to the national high-speed railway plan in
Taiwan. As East Taiwan is mountainous, most projects are tunnelling
works. Due to lack of technology in tunnelling works, the local
construction firms in Taiwan must cooperate with foreign firms in the
form of JVs.
This section uses the case of cooperation between a medium-sized
Taiwanese construction firm and a Japanese construction firm to
illustrate how a foreign firm uses the Shapley Value to evaluate and
select a local partner when attempting to enter the local market and to
reach an agreement on profit-sharing with the partner.
4.1. Background of the JV project
The project, in which both foreign and local firms are engaged in a
JV team, is "No. 9 Tunnelling Project Southern Section". The
length of the tunnel is 5.5 kilometers, and the contract amount is
NT$3,229 million. In line with the agreement between the cooperative
firms in forming for a JV project in order to reduce production costs
and indirect overhead costs, the project is divided into civil work and
main tunnelling work. The local firm is mainly responsible for the civil
work and the foreign firm is mainly responsible for the tunnelling work.
Details of the JV project are shown in Table 1.
4.2. Evaluation and selection of partner
There are two local construction firms, who want to cooperate with
a foreign firm specializing in tunnelling work. One is a medium-scale
construction firm (local firm A) and the other is a large-scale
construction firm (local firm B). Before the cooperation, each of the
three firms had evaluated the feasibility and costs of contracting the
project independently. The estimated project costs are shown in Table 2
and the estimated profits are determined based on Eq. (1). The foreign
firm is a specialized constructor in the aspect of tunnelling work who
can directly send technical staff and equipment to Taiwan, and therefore
the engineering costs for the tunnelling work is low. However, as the
foreign firm is not familiar with the local environment, it faces
relatively high production costs for the civil work, which requires
relatively more local human resources. Its indirect costs are also high.
The local firms are characterized by low costs for civil work and low
indirect costs. However, if they assume the tunnelling work
independently, they will have to pay large sums of expenditures to
purchase or lease extra equipment. Meanwhile, the local large-scale firm
is more advantageous than the medium-scale firm in the aspect of
technology and has lower direct costs but faces higher indirect costs
due to the larger scale of the company.
Overall, the foreign firm estimated a project cost of NT$3,108.76
million if it contracts the project independently, the local large-scale
firm estimated a project cost of NT$3,134.78 million, while the local
medium-scale firm estimated a project cost of NT$3,234.58 million which
would induce a loss of NT$5.58 million.
To make the project become more profitable, each firm is seeking a
cooperative plan to increase profit. Hence, after evaluation, it is
believed that the total project costs will be lower if the foreign firm
cooperates with a local firm in the form of a JV to contract the
project. The foreign firm can take the specific responsibility of
tunnelling works, and all civil works and project management tasks can
be assigned to the local firm. Although there may be some extra costs
for coordination and integration between the two parties, the total
costs can still be lower than independent operations.
The foreign firm wants to select one local construction firm as its
partner and therefore evaluated the costs, after cooperation, with each
local construction firm. Based on the individual estimated project costs
in Table 2, the estimated project cost for each JV team can be
determined (see Table 3). Since individual firms have relative low costs
in handling at least one of the project tasks (civil work, tunnelling,
or administration work), the work division of a JV team would naturally
be based on the relative costs of specific tasks. For example, for
foreign-local firm A JV team, the best work division of foreign firm is
to handle tunnelling work and rely on the local firm for civil work and
administration works. Thus, the estimated total project cost for the JV
team would be the costs for tunnelling of foreign firm and the civil
work and indirect costs of local firm, plus certain transaction cost
(10%). According to the principle, the estimated project cost for each
joint venture team can be determined.
The evaluation results show that, the total costs can be reduced to
NT$3,053.69 million and a profit of NT$175.31 million if it cooperates
with the local medium-scale firm, while the total costs can be reduced
to NT$3,011.02 million and a profit of NT$ 217.98 million if it
cooperates with the large-scale firm. However, the total project profit
is only a general reference for cooperation, the profit amount
distributed to each firm must be further calculated in order to
determine which cooperative plan is better for both parties.
The profit distributed to each firm is calculated based on the
concept of Shapley Value (see Table 4). In the first coalition, as the
local firm may make a loss if it contracts the project independently,
the profit is considered as zero. Hence, based on Eq. (3), the profit
allocated to the foreign firm is 1/2(12024) + 1/2(17531 - 0) = 147.77
million, while the profit allocated to the local firm is 1/2(0) +
1/2(17531 - 12024) = 27.54 million.
In the second coalition, the profit allocated to the foreign firm
is 1/2(12024) + 1/2(21798 - 9422) = 122 million, while the profit
allocated to the local firm is 1/2(9422) + 1/2(21798 - 12024) = 95.98
million.
The results show that the foreign firm will obtain higher profit if
it participates in the first coalition. Hence, the foreign firm has an
incentive to cooperate with the local medium-scale construction firm.
4.3. Evaluation of the profit-sharing method
Based on the information gathered by the JV team and the bid
evaluation, the coalition of the foreign firm and the local medium-scale
firm could win the contract for this project at a price of NT$3,229
million. Pricing of this project is divided into 7 milestones. The
project costs borne by each party based on ratio of investment are shown
in Table 5, and the accumulated costs for the project are shown in Fig.
1.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
For the profits generated after the cooperation, a comparison is
made between the distribution method based on ratio of investment and
the proposed method (see Table 6). Fig. 2 shows the profits
"distributed based on ratio of investment", "distributed
based on Shapley method", and generated from "independent
contracting" for comparison. As for distribution of profit in
cooperation, the local firm, will gain more profit if the distribution
is based on ratio of investment. For the foreign firm, however, the
profit gained is even lower than independent contracting in spite of the
risk of losing the contract after coalition. Hence, this JV plan is not
attractive to the foreign firm. Relatively, if the profit is distributed
based on the proposed method, the foreign firm will gain more profit
than independent contracting and thus the plan becomes attractive. On
the other side, the local firm still can benefit from the cooperation
with the foreign firm and obtain a reasonable profit, while the local
firm might face a certain loss if contracting independently. In
conclusion, comparison of the profits distributed to the foreign firm
and the local firm based on the proposed method and the profits
generated from independent contracting, indicates a profit increase of
NT$27.53 million for the foreign firm, and an increase of NT$33.12
million for the local firm. The closeness of increased profits for both
parties demonstrates that the proposed method is more fair, rational,
and feasible than the traditional distribution method based on ratio of
investment.
5. Conclusions
Through coalition of JV, the construction firms can share
professional technologies and resources and increase sources of new
contracts by breaking through the bidding thresholds. The foreign firm
can save indirect costs, while the local firm can avoid capital tied-up
by saving a large sum of expenditures on equipment, and, to some degree,
enhance its technological level. A win-win opportunity is thus created.
For a commercial perspective, a successful JV ensures all the
participants to obtain more profits than performing the work
individually. However, the traditional profit-sharing merely based on
the ratio of investment might not satisfy all the JV participants in
some cases. This paper proposes a profit-sharing model based on the
cooperative game theory to make up for the deficiency of the traditional
profit-sharing method and promote the relationship between JV firms. In
the end, the case study shows that, the contribution-based
profit-sharing model can ensure all the JV participants to obtain a
profit more than their independent works. Thus, the proposed model can
be used for supporting the partner evaluation and selection decisions,
which facilitate construction companies to choose the most appropriate
JV partners through prior profit calculation and find a profit-sharing
solution acceptable to both parties. More successful JVs might be formed
with the innovative solution to the conventional problems of
profit-sharing.
doi: 10.3846/20294913.2011.580578
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Sung-Lin Hsueh (1), Min-Ren Yan (2)
(1) Tung Fang Design University, Department of Interior Design, No.
110. Tung Fang Rd. Hu-Nei Shang Kaohsiung Hsien, Taiwan, R.O.C.
(2) Chinese Culture University (SCE), Department of International
Business Administration, No. 231. Sec. 2, Jianguo S. Rd., Da-an
District, Taipei City 106, Taiwan, R.O.C.
E-mails: (1) hsueh.sl@msa.hinet.net; (2) mjyen@sce.pccu.edu.tw
(corresponding author)
Received 07 July 2009; accepted 28 June 2010
Sung-Lin HSUEH earned his PhD degree from the Dept of Architecture
at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 2006.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Dept of Interior Design
in Tung Fang Design University. Concurrently, he is the Managing
Director of SIN-YA International Engineering Consultants Inc (Taiwan)
engaged in developing real estate of the Chinese market.
Min-Ren YAN is currently an Assistant Professor and Deputy Director
of the Department of International Business Administration in Chinese
Culture University (SCE). Concurrently, he is the Director of Quality
Center for Business Excellence in his College and business consultant in
web technology, marketing, and services industries. His research
interests focus on strategic alliances, game theoretical analysis,
project business economics, and decision models.
Table 1. Basic information of the JV project
Differentiation Foreign Firm Local Firm
Project Project type Tunnelling
project
characteristics Tunnel length 5.5 kilometers
Contract NT$3,229,000,000
amount
Ratio of 60% 40%
investment
Equipment Large-scale Small and
equipment, i.e. medium-scale
shield machines construction
(Transportation) equipment
Project team 4 persons 20 persons
members
Remark * Funds for the project are partly contributed by
both parties and partly loaned from banks.
* Costs of bank loans are interest rates.
* Funds for the project include all expenditures to
be paid in cash, such as wages and sub-construction
amounts.
Table 2. Estimated cost of independent operations
Contract amount 322900 Unit: NT$10,000
Foreign firm
Pricing Costs for Costs for Indirect
Stage civil work tunnelling costs
1 3925 6725 4894
2 9420 16140 11745
3 14915 25556 18596
4 17270 29591 21532
5 16485 28246 20553
6 11775 20175 14681
7 4710 8070 5872
Sum 78500 134503 97873
Total Costs 310876
Estimated Profit 12024
Local firm A
Pricing Costs for Costs for Indirect
Stage civil work tunnelling costs
1 3525 9018 3630
2 8461 21642 8712
3 13396 34267 13794
4 15512 39678 15972
5 14806 37874 15246
6 10576 27053 10890
7 4230 10821 4356
Sum 70507 180353 72598
Total Costs 323458
Estimated Profit -558
Local firm B
Pricing Costs for Costs for Indirect
Stage civil work tunnelling costs
1 2984 8713 3977
2 7162 20910 9546
3 11339 33108 15114
4 13130 38335 17500
5 12533 36593 16705
6 8952 26138 11932
7 3581 10455 4773
Sum 59680 174252 79546
Total Costs 313478
Estimated Profit 9422
Table 3. Estimated project costs after cooperation
Contract amount 322900 Unit: NT$10,000
Foreign firm + Local firm A
Pricing
Stage Costs for Costs for Indirect
civil work tunnelling costs
1 3878 7398 3993
2 9307 17754 9583
3 14736 28111 15173
4 17063 32550 17569
5 16287 31070 16770
6 11634 22193 11978
7 4653 8877 4791
Sum 77558 147953 79858
Total Costs 305369
Estimated Profit 17531
Foreign firm + Local firm B
Pricing
Stage Costs for Costs for Indirect
civil work tunnelling costs
1 3282 7398 4375
2 7878 17754 10500
3 12473 28111 16625
4 14443 32550 19250
5 13786 31070 18375
6 9847 22193 13125
7 3939 8877 5250
Sum 65648 147953 87501
Total Costs 301102
Estimated Profit 21798
Table 4. Comparison of different coalitions
Contractor Contract Total Estimated
amount cost profit
Foreign firm 322900 310876 12024
Local firm A 322900 323458 -558
Local firm B 322900 313478 9422
Foreign + Local firm A 322900 305369 17531
Foreign + Local firm B 322900 301102 21798
Contractor Shared profit Shared profit
by the foreign by the local
firm (based on firm (based on
contribution) contribution)
Foreign firm
Local firm A
Local firm B
Foreign + Local firm A 14777 2754
Foreign + Local firm B 12200 9598
Unit: NT$10,000
Table 5. Cost estimation for the JV team
Contract amount 322900 Unit: NT$10,000
Foreign firm (60%) Local firm A (40%)
Stage
Costs Accumulated Costs Accumulated
costs costs
1 9161 9161 6107 6108
2 21987 31148 14658 20766
3 34812 65960 23208 43974
4 40309 106269 26872 70846
5 38476 144745 25651 96497
6 27483 172228 18322 114819
7 10993 183221 7329 122148
Foreign firm +
Local firm A (100%)
Stage
Costs Accumulated
costs
1 15269 15269
2 36644 51913
3 58020 109933
4 67181 177114
5 64127 241241
6 45806 287047
7 18322 305369
Table 6. Comparison of different profit-sharing
Differentiation Independent Profit distribution based
contracting on ratio of investment
Profit Ratio Profit Profit shared:
shared compared with
independent
contracting
Foreign firm 12024 60% 10519 -1505
Local firm -558 40% 7012 +7570
Remarks The foreign firm got 12024 and local firm got
-558 when each of them invested alone without
cooperation.
In cooperation, it is unfair to distribute the
profit according to the proportion of investment
and it is also not easy to reach agreement. If
the profit is shared based on the proportion of
investment, the foreign firm will have no
incentive to cooperate with the local firm, while
he got less profit than independent contracting.
Based on the contribution-based profit
distribution upon JV, both parties gained higher
profit than individual sole investment and thus
the JV can be more successful.
Unit: NT$10,000
Differentiation Profit distribution based
on profit contribution
Profit Profit shared:
shared compared with
independent
contracting
Foreign firm 14777 +2753
Local firm 2754 +3312
Remarks The foreign firm got 12024 and local firm got
-558 when each of them invested alone without
cooperation.
In cooperation, it is unfair to distribute the
profit according to the proportion of investment
and it is also not easy to reach agreement. If
the profit is shared based on the proportion of
investment, the foreign firm will have no
incentive to cooperate with the local firm, while
he got less profit than independent contracting.
Based on the contribution-based profit
distribution upon JV, both parties gained higher
profit than individual sole investment and thus
the JV can be more successful.
Unit: NT$10,000
Fig. 2. Comparison of construction firm's profit under
different situation
Independent Based on Ratio Based on Shapley
Operation of Investment Value
Foreign firm 12 024 10 519 14 777
Local firm -558 7012 2754
Note: Table made from bar graph.