The presidency of the governing boards of cooperatives in Spain: a gendered approach

International cooperative values and principles are guidelines that could lead cooperatives towards greater gender equality in the decision-making process. Stimulated by the interest in cooperatives and by the growing demand for advocating a faster increase in the presence of chairwomen in boardrooms, this research aims to analyse the impact of the gender of the cooperative president in some variables related to financial and employment ratios, corporate governance and other characteristics of the organization in Spain. Information about the major Spanish cooperative entities has been collected and analyzed to carry out the empirical study. We find that cooperatives with higher liquidity ratio, higher number of employees, higher percentage of female employees, higher employee costs divided by operating revenue ratio, lower indebtedness, and fewer years since the appointment of the president have a higher probability of belonging to the group of cooperatives with a board chaired by a woman. Cooperatives headed by women exhibit a higher ratio of staffing costs to operating revenues, which could indicate an increased intensity of cooperative principles and values related with the primacy of the economic welfare of workers over the economic benefits

Barriers to innovation in Spanish rural Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

In the context of globalisation, innovation has been recognized as a key driver of Europe’s national and regional economies, whether rural or not. Nevertheless, rural firms are considered less innovative than firms in urban agglomerations. Rural areas represent three-quarters of the land of the OECD countries and are home to a quarter of its population. Moreover, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the economy. This paper reviews the barriers to innovation indicated throughout literature, brings out what constitutes the main barriers in rural SMEs and presents an understanding of some of the factors that determine the position of these firms in responding to new requirements. Data were collected through a questionnaire for managers of 511 SMEs in a rural area of Spain. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software package. The results identify key factors that hinder innovation in rural SMEs, namely those related to economic reasons, such as high costs of the innovation or the difficulty to obtain financial resources, and risk aversion issues. Specific research related to the study of innovation barriers in SMEs firms in rural areas is limited. Therefore, this paper fills this research gap by expanding the body of knowledge in the field of rural SMEs innovation and provides further evidence on this phenomenon. The results also offer relevant insights for managers and policy makers when formulating and implementing strategies to diminish innovation barriers in rural SMEs

Internationalisation and performance in Spanish family SMES: The W-curve

Previous studies have provided mixed evidence on the relationship between internationalisation and firm performance. We advance theoretically in this line of research by investigating the impact of the family dimension of a business on this relationship. Using a panel data analysis for the 2006-2011 period, we find empirically that Spanish family SMEs follow a W-curve. Our findings highlight the importance of differentiating family from non-family firms, and provide a potential explanation for the previous mixed evidence

The IT Strategy in the Luxury Sector: The Case of a Fashion Company

For centuries, Italy has been the benchmark for the high fashion and luxury sector, and while the ownership of the firms is often no longer totally Italian, the majority of the production is still “made in Italy”. During the financial crisis, the luxury industry has not been affected by downturn much, also thanks to “Millennials”, who assign a symbolic meaning to luxury goods as they endow relevance to virtual windows created by social networks. The brands capable of seizing the opportunity of digital communication (i.e. e-commerce; social network pages; sponsorships and commercial agreements with “influencers”; etc.) have overcome the adverse economic cycle rapidly. The goal of the paper is to illustrate the case of a successful business, to demonstrate the connections either between the prevailing gender of human capital of a fashion retailer and its IT strategies or between the use of social networks and digital media and company’s performance. Particularly, the main research question is “can the gender affect the relevance of Information and Communication Technologies in a luxury fashion company?”. As digital communication is a resource for the future, is it able to guarantee stable revenues and income? If a business, thanks to social media, reaches the success, is this attainment independent by the history of the company and by the knowledge of the management team? Is it easier or more difficult for a woman to succeed in the luxury market than for a man? To answer the above questions, we selected a famous company, operating in the fashion luxury sector, managed by women and whose products are advertised or sold through digital channels; we considered its history and the profile of its management; then, we analysed not only its main historical financial ratios but also some “digital” indicators (such as the number of visitors, the number of online customers, etc.). By using a descriptive statistic method, we demonstrated that even if the use of information technology can improve the growth rate of a business, the knowledge, the human skills, the experience of the creative director as well as the quality of raw material can ensure the generation of stable positive results