Abstract: "Market Value Impact of Joint Ventures: The Effect of Industry Information Processing Load", Ravindranath Madhavan & John E. Prescott, Academy of Management Journal, June 1995, Volume 38(3), pp. 900-915.

Previous studies of the market value impact of announcements of joint ventures have not considered industry effects. We suggest that the impact of such announcements varies with the information-processing load associated with analyzing events in the relevant industry. An event study analysis based on a stratified sample of 108 announcements in three industry groups, one with a light, one with a moderate, and one with a heavy information-processing load (the last category included the steel industry), confirmed this hypothesis. We examine implications for a signaling perspective on joint venture announcements.