The Czech Republic and Taiwan are currently experiencing economic slowdowns and downturns in their construction industries; therefore construction firms are forced to search for jobs in foreign markets. Among other strategic alternatives, joint ventures (hereafter JVs) have become a widely discussed issue due to their importance as strategic alliances in domestic as well as global competition. The formation of various kinds of partnerships is a great opportunity for companies to grow, improve efficiency, become more competitive; and increase their market share. On the other hand there are particular risks, difficulties and pitfalls involved in following such a strategy. Therefore, as the construction industry marketplace continues to become more globalized, we should examine up-coming challenges offered by international joint ventures (hereafter IJVs) as tools to enter prospective foreign markets. For purposes of this thesis, case study method was selected. Personal interviews are a principal component of this qualitative methodology. This thesis contains case studies of the two construction companies, which are expanding to prospective developing markets.
This study has demonstrated that barriers to foreign market entry can be partially overcome by IJV concept application and identifies critical success factors of foreign market penetration and IJV formation. Related risks and difficulties can be partially eliminated by following the key success factors and propositions we defined. For the mid-sized companies lacking capital for eventual acquisition, IJV resulted as an optimal strategic alternative for foreign market penetration.

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Web-sites:

1 Association of Building entrepreneurs of the Czech Republic (ABE)
http://www.sps.cz/statistika/statistika.asp

2 Construction portal for Russia
http://www.constructionrussia.com/

3 Czech Business Web Portal
http://www.businessinfo.cz/en

4 Council of Economic Planning and Development
http://www.cepd.gov.tw

5 Czech statistical Office
http://www.czso.cz/

6 Da Cin Construction Co., Ltd.
http://www.dacin.com.tw

7 Deloitte Czech Republic
http://www.deloitte.com

8 Government of India, Department of Commerce and Industry
http://commerce.nic.in/

9 Department of Investment Services
http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/

10 Government Information Office, Republic o China
http://www.gio.gov.tw/

11 Investopedia – A Forbes Digital Company
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12 Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C.
http://www.moea.gov.tw/

13 Ministry of Foreign Affair, Vietnam
http://www.mofa.gov.vn

14 Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech republic
http://www.mpo.cz/dokument49878.html/

15 PGS International Co.
http://www.psg.eu

16 Portal of the Czech Construction Industry
http://www.ceskestavebnictvi.cz/

17 Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
http://www.economy.gov.ru/

18 Taiwan Construction Research Institute
http://www.tcri.org.tw