 We are discussing international joint ventures, and in this topic, we are going to talk about the reasons why international joint ventures are created or may be created. International joint ventures may be created in order to gain knowledge and transfer that knowledge from the joint venture to the parent firm. So it is possible that you want to enter a local market. You want to know about a local market. You want to know about the raw materials, or you want to know about the processes, or you want to know what the company is doing effectively to learn their competitive advantage. You can go for an international joint venture to gain that knowledge and then to transfer that knowledge back to your parent firm. It is also possible that the host government insists that you go for a joint venture. You cannot operate as a multinational company. You cannot exist on your own in a particular country. You need to go for a joint venture. So it is possible that the host government in which you are trying to enter, in the country which you are trying to enter, the government of that country, it insists that you go for an international joint venture. The benefit of this is that the host country's stakes are also involved in it. They are also involved in your decision making, management, profitability. So it creates a stake of the local, of the host country in the multinational which is coming to work in that particular country. Another reason is to achieve economies of scale. So if a firm is operating in a particular country and they want to increase their market, they want to increase the production level and they locate another firm which is operating similar kind of functions in another country and to achieve those economies of scale, they don't go for establishing a new company in the local country. They go for an international joint venture to achieve these economies of scale. Then in order to gain local knowledge, that is also possible. That is one of the reasons. And another reason is to obtain vital raw materials. So sometimes raw material is not available in the country where the company is existing. They want to go for a particular product and the raw material for that product is not available in that country in which they are operating. So in order to gain vital raw materials for that product, they go and establish firms in that country. For example, in Pakistan, Pakistan is one of the largest producers of cotton and cotton industry. So multinationals from all over the world, they used to come to Pakistan and establish cotton industry and products that were made from cotton, textiles and fabrics, they used to come over here and establish businesses related to this particular raw material, which is cotton. Then one of the reasons for creating an international joint venture is to share the risk with another company. So if there is a financial risk or if there is a profitability risk, then to share the risk with another partner, that could be another reason for creating the joint venture. Then another reason is to improve your global competitive advantage by creating a joint venture. You become more responsive to the requirements of the global challenges and it is possible that you can gain global competitive advantage. Another reason for establishing an international joint venture is to provide an efficient and cost effective response required by the market and required by the globalization that is taking place in this world. So sometimes it is possible to achieve this cost effective response by bringing together processes, by bringing together skills, by bringing together facilities and resources, and by bringing together these resources, it is possible to provide a cost effective response which is required by the market and by the global market. So these are some of the reasons for establishing an international joint venture by bringing together two firms from two different countries.