Final answer:
A joint venture presents the greatest risk for an expanding firm as it involves significant financial and human investment and requires the integration of different corporate cultures and business practices, managing shared liabilities and potential conflicts among parties involved. Option B is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
When contemplating the expansion of a firm and considering business forms that may present the greatest risk in terms of financial and human investments, it's crucial to evaluate options like a licensing arrangement, joint venture, piggybacking, and franchising. These forms have varying implications for control, risk, and profit sharing.
A joint venture tends to present the greatest risk. This business arrangement involves two or more parties pooling their resources for a particular project or business activity. Financial risk is significant since all parties invest in the venture and thus share in any losses or liabilities. Human investment risk is also high because a joint venture requires close collaboration and the integration of different corporate cultures, which can lead to conflicts or misaligned objectives.
Other options like licensing, piggybacking and franchising are structured to spread out the risk more evenly or reduce it. For example, franchising allows a business to expand by granting an individual or group the rights to operate a franchise, providing them with a proven business model and support, while piggybacking involves using an existing distribution network for new products, thus reducing cost and risk. Licensing allows a company to permit another to use its brand, but the level of control over operations and the human investment is less direct than in a joint venture.
In conclusion, among the options given, a joint venture is likely to present the greatest risk for an expanding firm, in both financial and human investment terms.