Veronica Binda

Towards a 'Managerial Revolution' in European Business? The transformation of Danish and Spanish Big Business, 1973-2003

This article examines the growth strategies and ownership of the 40 largest corporations in Spain and Denmark from 1973 to 2003 in the light of European economic integration. It follows the tradition of the Harvard Program and builds on the work of Richard Whittington and Michael Mayers on the history of European corporations. These studies have been extended in three ways: geographically, introducing a small north European and a medium sized south European economy; methodologically by supplementing internationalization to diversification as main growth strategies; and chronologically by analysing three decades of corporate changes, 1973–2003. The result showed no convergence in diversification or ownership patterns while in both countries the largest corporations were less market oriented and more international at the end of the period.

Changing big business in Italy and Spain, 1973-2003: Strategic responses to a new context

Drawing on a new database, this article deals with the transformation of ownership, strategies and structures of the top 50 Italian and Spanish business groups and with the relationships between these three dimensions in the period extending from the mid-1970s to 2003. Despite the deep changes in the macro-economic framework during the period considered, the ownership and organisational structures of big business present relevant continuities in both countries. However, the database individuates a metamorphosis in the diversification and internationalisation patterns in both nations. Among the many relevant factors in the interpretation of this trend, the impact of the process of European integration and the high level of turbulence which characterised the largest companies during this period are not negligible.