Paloma Fernández Pérez

National determinants of family firm development? Family firms in Britain, Spain and Italy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

We provide here a complement to recent work on family business, which has demonstrated the need to go beyond the generic definition of the family firm to place personal capitalism in an appropriate institutional, historical, and cultural framework. By focusing on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century experiences in Britain, Spain, and Italy, we challenge the notion that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was anything so simple as a Mediterranean model for family business. Rather, we demonstrate the need to consider family businesses in national and regional contexts if we are to understand their various capabilities and characteristics. We use similarities and differences in the experiences and responses of families and firms in the three countries to support this claim.

A silent revolution: The internationalisation of large Spanish family firms

This article studies the dominant role played by large family firms in the internationalisation of the Spanish economy. Based on new empirical evidence from circa 150 historical and internationalised family firms, the article integrates concepts and theories from recent literature on internationalisation, international entrepreneurship, sociology, and family business. The main argument is that in Spain, as in other European, South American and Asian countries, the integration of most of the leading family firms in the global market has been the outcome of a long learning process strongly influenced by the countrys natural and human resources, institutional framework, and regional patterns of economic development and business cultures. In contrast with other countries, however, foreign capital and technology and collective action at regional, national and international levels play a far more important role in the internationalisation of large family firms.

Bonsais in a Wild Forest? A Historical Interpretation of the Longevity of Large Spanish Family Firms

This study presents the first results of an on-going study of longevity of large Spanish family firms. Its main objective is to provide solid data for a topic in which opinions are more abundant than scientific statistics, as well as to identify the keys to the survival and competitiveness of the almost 250 firms included in the study. It concludes that this reality is not just the result of two decades of integration in Europe or a fortunate endowment with some natural resources, but the outcome of a long learning process and the combination of two factors: specialization in market niches in which the state had no strategic interests and the creation of personal networks of cooperation and influence within and outside Spain.

Knowledge and training in family firms of the European periphery: Spain in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries

This article is a first attempt to explore the relationship between training and entrepreneurship in Spanish family firms. It examines changes and continuities over time, and relates the evolution of the training practices of Spanish family firms to the technical and economic conditions of the first and second industrial revolutions. The article demonstrates the interaction betweeen technical and educational ideas, the creative adaptation to the entrepreneurial needs of regions and economic sectors, and institutional conditions. It is organised in three main sections. The first briefly introduces new institutional and sociological theories applied to the study of the formation of business groups. The second summarises existing literature and research that deals with knowledge transference and business training in Spanish family firms, and provides a general survey of informal and formal business education in eighteenth to twentieth-century Spain. The third presents case studies of changing training practices in big and old family firms, and relates this evidence with theoretical and institutional insights.

Catalonian Trademarks and the Development of Marketing Knowledge in Spain, 1850–1946

Trademarks have traditionally been viewed as assets that, although intangible, nevertheless contribute to the success of firms. This study, based on a compilation of national trademark data, corrects existing distortions of the historical role of brands and their—often unsuccessful—use as business tools by countries, sectors, or firms. Legislation on, and the profuse use of, trademarks in the Western world was pioneered by Spain, rather than by France, the United States, or the United Kingdom, and was initiated in unusual sectors, such as papermaking and textiles, rather than in the more usual ones of food and beverages. Analysis of the applicants of Catalan trademarks, across sectors, during almost a century, reveals that the legal possession of a brand cannot in itself guarantee a firms success.

Small firms and networks in capital intensive industries: The case of Spanish steel wire manufacturing

This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to gain a better understanding of the organization of the Spanish industry in a long-term perspective. Sociological concepts about networks, and studies about family firms from management and business history literatures, are combined to illuminate the dominance of family ownership in capital intensive industries. Popp, Toms and Wilsons work on the spatialization of resource distribution and resource dependence has been used to understand the dominance of small family firms co-ordinated by networks in the particular case study of the Spanish steel wire manufactures. The article also has important implications for questioning Cassons interpretation about the difficulties dynastic family firms may have in science-wire rod industries.

The endurance of family businesses : a global overview

Introduction: a global revolution: the endurance of large family businesses around the world Paloma Fernandez Perez and Andrea Colli Part I. Theoretical Issues and Debates: 1. The emergence of family business studies: a historical approach to pioneering centers, scholars, and ideas Paloma Fernandez Perez and Nuria Puig 2. Family firm longevity: a balancing act between continuity and change Pramodita Sharma and Carlo Salvato 3. Family values or crony capitalism Harold James 4. Risk, uncertainty, and family ownership Andrea Colli Part II. Exogenus Factors: The Environment: 5. Entrepreneurial spirit in the evolution of Swedish family businesses Hans Sjogren 6. Cultural forces in large family firm persistence: a model based upon the case project Vipin Gupta 7. Family firms and the new multinationals: evidence from Spain Mauro F. Guillen and Esteban Garcia Canal 8. Finance and family-ness: a historical overview of assessing the economics of kinship Christopher Kobrak and Pramuan Bunkanwanicha Part III. Endogenous Determinants: Inside the Black Box: 9. The women of the family business Christine Blondel and Marina Niforos 10. The role of values in family-owned firms Remei Agulles, Lucia Ceja and Josep T...pies 11. Managing professionalization in family business: transforming strategies for managerial succession and recruitment in family firms in the twentieth century Susanna Fellman.

Global lobbies for a global economy: The creation of the Spanish Institute of Family Firms in international perspective

Globalisation has encouraged the creation of global lobbies which promote the interests of their associated members in international institutions. However, despite their increased importance in the global economy, scholarly literature has so far offered scarce data or analysis about these lobbies. This article examines the creation of global lobbies for large family firms over the last two decades, and the strong connection established in this period between collective action, education and internationalisation in the strategies of such firms. The establishment of the Spanish Institute of Family Firms is considered to be an early European adaptation of pioneering North American lobbies and a model for other European and Latin American associations of large family firms.

As old as history: Family-controlled business groups in transport services: the case of SEUR

This article presents empirical evidence about the contribution of family-controlled business groups as highly efficient alternatives to the large vertically integrated and professionally managed corporation in specific institutional and market environments. This hypothesis is tested with a single case study, SEUR, in the Spanish transport services sector. SEUR is one of the most prominent Spanish courier companies. It was founded during Francos dictatorship, expanded in democratic times, and imaginatively adapted to the financial challenges of the late globalisation at the end of the twentieth century, while maintaining the traditional values based on personal trust and family ties.This article presents empirical evidence about the contribution of family-controlled business groups as highly efficient alternatives to the large vertically integrated and professionally managed corporation in specific institutional and market environments. This hypothesis is tested with a single case study, SEUR, in the Spanish transport services sector. SEUR is one of the most prominent Spanish courier companies. It was founded during Francos dictatorship, expanded in democratic times, and imaginatively adapted to the financial challenges of the late globalisation at the end of the twentieth century, while maintaining the traditional values based on personal trust and family ties.

Empresas familiares y acuerdos cooperativos en el metal español: el caso de las industrias del alambre de hierro y acero (1880-1974)

Family ownership, reduced size of productive centers, and concentration are historical trends that characterize the development of the Spanish iron and steel wire firms in international comparison. Agreements at regional level between the most significant family firms of the sector allowed coordination, which proved to be useful to avoid absorptions and to keep family control in some of the most important firms during more than a century. KEY Classification-JEL: L14, N83, N84, 014