61,138 research outputs found

    The Hidden Work of Women in Small Family Firms in Southern Spain

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    Women have historically played an important hidden role in family firms, and a great deal of research is now shedding light on this role. In spite of the more formal nature of female work at the present day, still a considerable volume of women’s contributions in family firms is unregistered and unpaid, even in developed regions. A questionnaire was administered to 396 women working in small and medium-sized family firms located in Andalucia, a southern European region, characterized by familialism and an important informal economy. Our results confirm the persistence of subordinate forms of unpaid family collaboration due to the neutrality assigned to female contributions under the traditional gendered division of work. But also this study shows how some of the women voluntarily embrace subordinate roles as a temporary way to gain professional experience, useful for their future work inside or outside the family firm

    Standing the test of time: External factors influencing family firm longevity in Germany and Spain during the twentieth century

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    While most research on family business longevity focuses on how internal corporate governance issue impact resilience, the aim of this article is to foreground the relevance of external environmental factors, and to do so in an internationally comparative perspective. By historically comparing the largest family businesses in Germany and Spain in the twentieth century, we find that they differ significantly in age and ask how external factors help us better understand these variances. After analysing the institutional framework of the two countries during the second part of the 20th century, we explore the strategic responses developed in reaction to that framework by four of the largest family businesses in the two countries. With this, we strive to capture the interdependent nature of internal decision-making processes and external environmental changes, ultimately arguing for a more holistic understanding of family business resilience over time

    Business Networks and Social Capital in Basque Industrialization (1886–1925)

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    The aim of this article is to analyse the potential role that social capital played in the industrialization of the Basque Country. The province of Gipuzkoa, together with the neighbouring Bizkaia (Biscay), was one of the most dynamic provinces in Spain in terms of the creation of companies. Using information obtained from the registration of new companies in the Mercantile Register, and through social network analysis, we try to measure the importance that social capital may have had in this process. The methodology is tested with the case study of the arms industry in Eibar, one of the most important sectors in the region.

    Chilean Public Policies and their Impact on Biotechnology Small and Medium Enterprises

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    It is difficult to find cases of technology-based Small and Medium Enterprises in developing countries, however Chile has some within the biotechnology sector. How has this been possible? As a consequence of the different public policies and structural economic conditions that allowed their emergence, especially in the 1990s. This study describes the historical conditions and how they have been able to create a sector within the Chilean economy. From the analysis of secondary data the emergence of this type of company within the country is described. This analysis shows the link between structural conditions and appropriate public policies, meaning that these companies did not emerge by chance. Understanding their development process is crucial to promote the creation of more such technology-based Small and Medium Enterprises, as they have many positive externalities and are more globally competitive

    The Importance of Brand Values in Family Business

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    Only a small body of literature exists on linking key marketing concepts in family business contexts and those studies that do exist show a significant bias towards brand management. Both the relevance of the subject and the lack of research assuming this challenge to date justify the interest and timeliness of this literature review.Based on this interest—and the existing research opportunities—this article presents the concept of brand, together with a framework for its analysis in family business contexts. The paper summarizes the six main lines of research proposed, three from the perspective of identity management, and three from the perspective of stakeholders. The last section presents a series of interesting aspects for carrying out future research

    The Study of the Entrepreneur’s Values and Knowledge: Influence in Growth Expectations

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    This study examines how entrepreneur’s values and knowledge can influence growth expectations in new technology-ventures. The study analyses six Spanish cases with different level of growth expectations in their first years and with different characteristics in the entrepreneurial team. Our research reveals that entrepreneur’s knowledge is not a factor that helps to differentiate the level of growth in this specific sector. However, we found certain values present in those new ventures with a higher growth expectations, mainly independence and wealth. The values that were not related are the need of exploitation and security. Finally, we draw a model to understand the relationship between entrepreneur’s values and knowledge and their impact on new technology venture growth expectations

    Small and Medium Enterprises in Mexico and the Craft Beer Sector in Baja California: Dynamic Capabilities, Culture, and Innovation

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    This article studies how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in emerging economies implement adaptative strategies to respond to constant changes in demand and global uncertainties, such as those stemming from the current SARS-COV2 pandemic. In this study the knowledge management capabilities used by SMEs in the craft beer sector in a region of northern Mexico are the focus of analysis. The objective is to present the competitive capabilities that craft beer sector has demonstrated in Baja California region and how small companies compete with the national industrial brewery and survive. Sources are data from a sample of companies and interviews with brewery owners, with which the analysis approaches, also, the Baja California business environment. The article highlights the routes of creativity, innovation, and symbolic capital of the companies in the region, and uses ideas from dynamic capabilities and knowledge management theoretical frameworks, to understand the craft brewery milieu. The conclusions in this article include the confirmation about the usefulness of these analytical frameworks based in the capabilities approach and the territorial knowledge. Also, the description of the existence of a complex Baja Californian milieu, where a multimodal scheme of craft beer characterized by different places of distribution and types of beer container, food-districts, at Mexicali, Tijuana, and Ensenada and a second generation of entrepreneur groups leading local business, is identified

    Study cases of two small medium size enterprises (SMEs) in the southern metropolitan region of Buenos Aires

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    The main purpose of the paper is to understand which specific strategies Argentinian small medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopted during the second half of the 20th century to adapt to and confront economic cycles, and how the learning process allowed them to endure over time. To do so, we focus on the learning paths of two metallurgy firms established in the Quilmes District, south of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region: SINPAR (1931), and Gora (1958), which have accumulated experience and recognition at the local level, for more than sixty years. By studying those companies, we aim to a twofold result. The first is to show that the strategies of the SMEs in the manufacturing sector are based on internal capabilities of meeting demand and responding to the domestic economy. The second one associates the long-term endurance of companies with a strong family management structure over more than one generation. Based on those results, we will argue that the SMEs lasted over time because their founders and successors developed the ability to adapt and of learning how to respond to and take advantage of the uncertainty, restrictions and opportunities of the Argentinian economy

    The internationalisation of family SMEs in the Valencian region: the growing role played by Latin America, 1980-2018

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    SME's and family businesses are central elements in Spain's modern economic growth. However, their process of internationalization has been little explored in recent research, particularly when it has been primarily aimed at emerging economies.  The article aims to understand and explain the internationalisation process of SME's in the Valencian region in Latin America. Through a set of cases of companies from different sectors (Metal, Machinery, Chemical, Ceramics, Textile, Furniture) it is showed that since 1990, the different Latin American countries have been increasing their presence in the preferential markets of most of the 22 companies studied. The growing role of the region in the investments of Valencian SME's shows the diversification and expansion of destination markets, including geographically not only the traditional European or Arab countries but also those of Latin America. Different reasons underlie this internationalisation: but the enterprises analysed based on a case studies approach showed different models of expansion. The common denominator being that of strategies specifically developed and adapted to the destination country's local environment: from an incremental and gradual expansion

    Small publishing houses in Argentina. Their dynamism and limitations within the publishing industry

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    The goal of this article is to analyze the market insertion that small Argentine publishing houses underwent between the late twentieth century and 2015. We take into account the sector’s evolution in the country, the worldwide concentration of the publishing market, and the business strategies these firms adopted, from a historical standpoint. Sources are institutional and periodical publications, oral sources obtained through interviews with key actors, statistical sources, repository information, and secondary literature. Some comparisons with other Latin American countries are also presented. The conclusions highlight elements such as the publishing houses´accumulated historical experience, business strategies, speed of adaptation to digital and multimedia formats, production focused on specific areas or topics, and the leveraging of a minimal and flexible structure, many times in unfavorable circumstances, as key factors that allow a correct understanding of the complexities of the business of publishing for small and medium enterprises in Argentina
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