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Family character and international entrepreneurship: A historical comparison of Italian and Spanish ‘new multinationals’

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 55; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00076791.2012.687536

1743-7938

Andrea Colli, Esteban García Canal, Mauro F. Guillén,

Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

Abstract Although family firms are traditionally associated with low levels of internationalisation, this paper shows that family ownership can generate opportunities for international entrepreneurship related to the exploitation abroad of the expertise and social capital developed at home. Specifically, it argues that family character favours international expansion in at least three ways: (1) by granting more freedom to the managers of the company to develop their business model; (2) by facilitating the transfer to, and exploitation of, this model in foreign markets; and (3) by making the adoption of governance structures based upon trust easier. Drawing on a comparison between the business history of selected Spanish and Italian 'new multinationals', support is found for these hypotheses. Keywords: multinationalsnetworksfamily firms Acknowledgements Authors are strictly in alphabetical order. Esteban García-Canal and Mauro Guillén are grateful for the financial support of the Fundación Rafael del Pino, and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Project ECO2010-18718). Notes 1. Jones, Multinationals and Global Capitalism, Chap. 2. 2. Amatori and Colli, Business History, Chap. 20 and 21. 3. Guillén, The Limits of Convergence. 4. For Italy, see Colli and Vasta, Forms of Enterprise; for Spain, see Guillén, The Rise of Spanish Multinationals. 5. http://unctadstat.unctad.org. 6. Colli, 'Pocket Multinationals'. 7. R&S, Medium-Sized Enterprises in Europe, 15 ff. 8. Guillén and García-Canal The New Multinationals. 9. Kontinent and Ojala, 'Social Capital'. 10. BCG, The 2009 BCG 100 New Global Challengers. 11. See for example, Claessens et al., 'The Separation of Ownership and Control'; Iskander and Chamlou, Corporate Governance; La Porta et al., 'Corporate Ownership Around the World'. 12. Binda and Colli, 'Changing Big Business in Italy and Spain'. 13. Casillas et al., International Entrepreneurship in Family Business, 74 ff; Casillas et al., 'Internationalization of Family Businesses'. 14. Colli, Il quarto capitalismo; Colli, 'Pocket Multinationals'; Amatori and Colli, 'Models of Entrepreneurship in a Latecomer Country'. 15. See Sudrià and Fernández-Pérez, Spanish Business History. 16. Guillén, The Rise of Spanish Multinationals. 17. Colli, Il Quarto Capitalismo, 76. 18. Zahra, 'Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking in Family Firms'; Claver et al., 'Family Firms' Risk Perception'. 19. Villalonga and Amit, 'How do Family Ownership, Control and Management Affect Firm Value?'. 20. Mariotti and Mutinelli, Italia Multinazionale. 21. Zahra and George, 'International Entrepreneurship'. 22. See Acs et al., 'Towards New Horizons' for a review. 23. Zahra and George, 'International Entrepreneurship'; Zahra et al., International Expansion by New Venture Firms. 24. See, for a review, Zahra, 'Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking in Family Firms'; Schmid et al., 'Family Firms, Agency Costs and Risk Aversion'. 25. Sirmon and Hitt, 'Managing Resources'. 26. Danes et al., 'Family Capital of Family Firms'. 27. Astrachan and Kolenko, 'A Neglected Factor Explaining Family Business Success'. 28. Nahpiet and Ghoshal, 'Social Capital, Intellectual Capital and the Organizational Advantage'. 29. Hitt et al., 'Strategic Entrepreneurship'. 30. Eddleston and Kellermanns, 'Destructive and Productive Family Relationships'; Schulzeet al., 'Agency Relationship in Family Firms'. 31. Villalonga and Amit, 'How do Family Ownership, Control and Management Affect Firm Value?'. 32. Cappunys, 'Internationalization of Family Businesses through Strategic Alliances'. 33. Dimov, 'Grappling With the Unbearable Elusiveness of Entrepreneurial Opportunities'. 34. 'Editorial Planeta, el origen de un gran grupo', Cataluña Económica, 15 November 2004. Lara Bosch, 'Sector Editorial'; Lara Bosch, 'La transformación del negocio de la comunicación'; Peces, 'José Manuel Lara Hernández'; Marco and Gracia, La Llegada de los Bárbaros; published interviews with Mr Lara Bosch (El Mundo, 13 September 1999; El País, 21 May 1999; La Razón, 19 October 2001; Cinco Días, 19 October 2002; Expansión, 2 December 2002; El País, 4 May 2008) and Mr Lara Hernández (ABC, 13 June 1967; La Vanguardia, 19 August 1994), other newspaper articles and corporate information and an interview with Luis Elías, Secretary-General, Grupo Planeta. 35. Peces, 'José Manuel Lara Hernández'; Fernandez Moya, 'La promesa del gran mercado del libro'; Prieto Martín, 'José Manuel Lara Hernández'. 36. Information about the history of De Agostini is still not available on a systematic basis. 'Drago, quanto conta la forza della famiglia', La Repubblica, 16 May 2006; 'Colpi di Drago. Nuove strategie della De Agostini', Panorama, 4 April 2003. Recent updated information about the group's structure and finances are in the yearbook of R&S-Mediobanca, 2010. 37. Peces, 'José Manuel Lara Hernández: muere el hombre perdura el mito'. 38. Cosmen, 'Experiencia de un empresario español en China'; Cosmen, 'Perspectivas para la empresa española en China'; Cosmen, 'Los sistemas de gestión de las empresas de transporte en China'; Cosmen, 'ALSA in China'; Bueno and Morcillo, La Dirección Eficiente; Bueno and Merino, 'La Vocación Internacional'; Fernández and Nieto, 'La internacionalización de ALSA'; published interviews with Mr José Cosmen (El Mundo Magazine, 23 April 2000), Mr Jorge Cosmen (Las Provincias, 3 February 2008, Expansión, 8 November 2001) and Mr André Cosmen (Savia, June 2005; Ideas Empresariales 95/2006), other newspaper articles and corporate information and an interview with Jacobo Cosmen. 39. Fernández and Nieto, 'La internacionalización de ALSA'. 40. Colli, 'Pocket Multinationals'; Colli, 'Patterns of Innovation'. 41. De Lillo, Francisco Riberas contra su destino; Montoro, 'El modelo Gestamp'; Klett and García, 'El papel de las TIC'; published interviews with Mr Francisco Riberas Pampliega (Diario de Burgos, 30 January 2006), and Mr Jon Riberas (El País, 6 December 2009), other newspaper articles and corporate information, and other data and information provided by Mr Juan Carlos Esteban (manager of Holding Gonvarri). 42. Colli and Merlo, Fontana. Una storia di vita. 43. The company also integrated downstream, albeit temporarily, by entering the shelving and storage industry with the 2000 acquisition of Esmena, which it sold in 2006 to Mecalux. 44. De Lillo, Francisco Riberas contra su destino, 320. 45. The first international project of Gonvarri took place in 1992, when acquiring Emilsider, an Italian steel services centre, followed by the purchase of Cosider in Portugal one year later. In 1997 Gonvarri established a service centre in Morocco, catering to the needs of the household appliances industry, and anticipating the establishment of automobile assembly plants. These early steps, however, were disappointing, and the company sold its facilities in Morocco and Italy in 2006 and 2007, respectively. For this reason, the international expansion of the steel service activities became conditioned by the existence of manufacturing plants of Gestamp Automoción. 46. De Lillo, Francisco Riberas contra su destino, 255–8. 47. Ibid., 210–11. 48. Colli and Merlo, Fontana: una storia di vita, 88. 49. De Lillo, Francisco Riberas contra su destino, 284. 50. Colli and Merlo, Fontana: una storia di vita, 104. 51. De Lillo, Francisco Riberas contra su destino, 317–18. 52. For example, Puig and Fernández, 'A Silent Revolution'.