A joint venture is a business enterprise undertaken by two or more persons or organizations to share the expense and (hopefully) profit of a particular business project. A joint venture is not a business organization in the sense of a proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. It is an agreement between parties for a particular purpose and usually a defined timeframe. Joint ventures may be very informal, such as a handshake and an agreement for two firms to share a booth at a trade show. Other arrangements may be extremely complex, such as a consortium of major electronics firms joining to develop new microchips. The key factor in a joint venture partnership is its single, definable objective. Joint ventures have grown in popularity in recent years, despite the relatively high failure rate of such efforts for one reason or another. Creative small business owners have been able to use this business strategy to good advantage over the years, although the practice remains one primarily associated with larger corporations.