Standing the test of time: External factors influencing family firm longevity in Germany and Spain during the twentieth century
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/jesb2020.1.j073Keywords:
Family business, Longevity, Resilience, External environment, National determinants, Spain, GermanyAbstract
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.Downloads
References
Anonymous. 1994. Zwei Kranke im Bett. Der Spiegel. 10: 104-105.
Astrachan, Joseph H., Sabine B. Klein, and Kosmas X. Smyrnios. 2002. "The F-PEC Scale of Family Influence. A Proposal for Solving the Family Business Definition Problem." Family Business Review 15(1): 45-58.
Bähr, Johannes. 2001. Industrie im geteilten Berlin (1945-1990). Die elektotechnische Industrie und der Maschinenbau im Ost-West Vergleich: Branchenentwicklung, Technologien und Handlungsstrukturen. München: Saur.
Bakr Ibrahim, A., J. McGuire, and Khaled Soufani. 2009. "An Empirical Investigation of Factors Contributing to Longevity of Small Family Firms." Global Economy & Finance Journal 2 (2): 1-21.
Baumann, Hans. 1965. Maschinenbau. Berlin, München: Duncker & Humblot.
Beckert, Jens. 2008. Inherited Wealth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Berghoff, Hartmut. 2006. "The End of Family Business? The Mittelstand and German Capitalism in Transition, 1949-2000." Business History Review 80 (2): 263-295.
Birley, Sue, Dennis Ng, and Andrew Godfrey. 1999. "The Family and the Business." Long Range Planning 32 (6): 598-608.
Bjuggren,Per-Olof, and Lars-GöranSund. 2001. "Strategic Decision Making in Intergenerational Successions of Small- and Medium-Size Family-Owned Businesses." Family Business Review 14 (1): 11-24.
Capasso, Arturo, Carmen Gallucci, and Matteo Rossi. 2015. "Standing the test of time. Does firm performance improve with age? An analysis of the wine industry." Business History 57 (7): 1037-1053.
Carreras, Albert, and Xavier Tafunell. 2004. Historia económica de la España contemporánea. Barcelona: Crítica.
Cassis, Youssef. 1997. Big Business. The European Experience in the Twentieth Century. Oxford.
Casson, Mark. 1999. "The Economics of the Family Firm." Scandinavian Economic History Review 47 (1): 10-23.
Chandler, Alfred D. 1977. The Visible Hand. The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Chandler, Alfred D. 1990. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Chua, Jess. H., James J. Chrisman, and Pramodita Sharma. 1999. "Defining the Family Business By Behavior." Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 23 (4): 19-39.
Colli, Andrea. 2003. The History of Family Business 1850-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Colli, Aandrea. 2011a. "Business History in Family Business Studies. From Neglect to Cooperation?" Journal of Family Business Management 1 (1): 14-25.
Colli, Andrea 2011b. "Family Firms in European Economic History." In Doing Succession in Europe. Generational Transfers in Family Businesses in Comparative Perspective, edited by I. Stamm, P. Breitschmid and M. Kohli, 29-58. Zürich: Schulthess.
Colli, Andrea, Paloma Fernández Pérez, and Mary B.Rose. 2003. "National Determinants of Family Firm Development? Family Firms in Britain, Spain, and Italy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." Enterprise & Society 4 (1): 28-64.
Colli, Andrea, and Mary B. Rose. 2007). "Family Business." In The Oxford Handbook of Business History, edited by G. Jones and J. Zeitlin, 194-218. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Daunton, M. J. 1988. "Inheritance and Succession in the City of London in the Nineteenth Century." Business History 30 (3): 269-286.
Deutsches Aktieninstitut e.V. 2009. DAI-Factbook 2009. Statistiken, Analysen und Graphiken zu Aktionären, Aktiengesellschaften und Börsen. Frankfurt/Main.
Dyck, Bruno, Michael Mauws, Frederick A. Starke, and Gary A. Mischke. 2002. "Passing the Baton. The Importance of Sequence, Timing, Technique and Communication in Executive Succession." Journal of Business Venturing 17 (2): 143-162.
Ehrhardt, Olaf, Eric Nowak, and Felix-Michael Weber. 2006. "Running in the Family" The Evolution of Ownership, Control and Performance in German Family-Owned Firms, 1903-2003 (Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series No 06-13). Zürich.
Eichengreen, Barry J. 2008. Globalizing Capital. A History of the International Monetary System. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Fahed-Sreih, Josiane, and Salpie Djoundourian. 2006. "Determinants of Longevity and Success in Lebanese Family Businesses. An Exploratory Study." Family Business Review 19 (3): 225-234.
Fear, Jeffrey. 2005. Organizing Control: August Thyssen and the Construction of German Corporate Management. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fernández-Moya, María. 2015. "La internacionalización de los editores. Los mercados exteriores." In Historia de la Edición en España (1939-1975), edited by Jesús Martínez Martín, 575-595. Madrid, Marcial Pons.
Fernández-Moya, María.2012. "Creating Knowledge Networks: Spanish Multinational Publishers in Mexico". Business History Review 86 (1): 69-98.
Fernández-Moya, María. 2009. "Multinacionales del castellano. La internacionalización del sector editorial español." Revista de Historia Industrial 40:23-50.
Fernández-Roca, Francisco Javier, Jesús D. López-Manjón, and Fernando Gutiérrez-Hidalgo.2014. "Family Cohesion as a Longevity Factor of Business with Intergenerational Transmission." Enterprise & Society 15 (4): 791-819.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma. 1997. El rostro familiar de la metrópoli: redes de parentesco y lazos mercantiles en Cádiz, 1700-1812. Madrid, Málaga, Spain: Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, Unicaja.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, and Pablo Díaz. 2016. "Between power and the market: an approach to the historical evolution of large family businesses in Spain in the twentieth century." In Evolution of family business: continuity and change in Latin America and Spain, edited by P. Fernández Pérez, and Andrea Lluch, 217-237. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, and Aurelia Hernández.2010. "The Role of the State in the Promotion of Entrepreneurship among Family Businesses. The Case of Spain in a Long-Run Perspective." Entrepreneurial History Discussion Papers, online: http://www.ehdp.net/p005.html (accessed 4 October 2010) 5.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, and Andrea Lluch, eds. 2016. Evolution of family business: continuity and change in Latin America and Spain. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, and Nuria Puig. 2009. "Global Lobbies for a Global Economy. The Creation of the Spanish Institute of Family Firms in International Perspective." Business History 51 (5): 712-733.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, and Nuria Puig. 2007."Bonsais in a Wild Forest? A Historical Interpretation of the Longevity of Spanish Large Family Firms." Revista de Historia Económica Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History vol. XXV (3): 459-498.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, ed. 2013. La profesionalización de los negocios familiares en España y México. Madrid: LID.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma, and Andrea Colli, eds. 2013. The Endurance of Family Businesses. A Global Overview. Nueva York: Cambridge University Press.
Fernández Pérez, Paloma. 2015. "Impacto de la crisis en las grandes empresas familiares del mundo. Una primera aproximación cuantitativa para 11 países." AEHE Working Paper 1512. Available at https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/ahedtaehe/1512.htm
Friedrich Deckel München, ed. 1978. 75 Jahre Deckel. München: Deckel.
Giersch, Herbert, Karl-Heinz Paqué, and Holger Schmieding. 1994. The Fading Miracle. Four Decades of Market Economy in Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goody, Jack, Joan Thirsk, and E. P. Thompson. 1976. Family and inheritance: rural society in Western Europe, 1200-1800. Cambridge Eng.; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Goto, Toshio. 2006. "Longevity of Japanese Family Firms." In Handbook of Research on Family Business, edited by P. Z. Poutziouris, K. X. Smyrnios, and S. B. Klein, 517-534. Cheltenham und Northampton: Edward Elgar Pub.
Guinnane, Timothy, Ron Harris, Naomi R. Lamoreaux, and J.-P. Rosenthal. 2007. "Putting the Corporation in its Place." Enterprise & Society 8 (3): 687-729.
James, Harold. 2006. Family Capitalism: Wendels, Haniels, Falcks, and the Continental European Model. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Kittner, Michael. 2005. Arbeitskampf. Geschichte − Recht − Gegenwart. München.
Krogh, H. 1987. "Hürdenlauf mit gutem Ende." manager-magazin 17 (1): 69-76.
Kuratko, Donald F., H. B. Foss, and L. L. VanAlst. 1994. "IRS Estate Freeze Rules. Implications for Family Business Succession Planning." Family Business Review 7 (1): 61-71.
La Porta, Rafael, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World." Journal of Finance 54 (2): 471-517.
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. 2009. "Scylla or Charybdis? Historical Reflections on Two Basic Problems of Corporate Governance." Business History Review 83:9-34.
Lamparter, D. H. 1993. Auf der Suche nach dem Dreh. Die Zeit. 27.
Lorandini, Cinzia. 2015. "Looking beyond the Buddenbrooks syndrome: the Salvadori Firm of Trento, 1660s – 1880s." Business History 57 (7): 1005-1019.
Lubinski, Christina. 2010. Familienunternehmen in Westdeutschland: Corporate Governance und Gesellschafterkultur seit den 1960er Jahren. München: C.H.Beck.
Lubinski, Christina. 2011. "Path Dependency and Governance in German Family Firms." Business History Review 85 (4): 699-724.
Lubinski, Christina, Jeffrey R. Fear, and Paloma Fernández Pérez, eds. 2013. Family Multinationals: Entrepreneurship, Governance, and Pathways to Internationalization. New York: Routledge.
Mackie, Robin. 2001. "Family Ownership and Business Survival: Kirkcaldy, 1870-1970." Business History 43 (3): 1-32.
Mandelbaum, Leonard. 1994. "Small Business Succession. The Educational Potential." Family Business Review 7 (4): 369-375.
Melin, Leif, Mattias Nordqvist, and Pramodita Sharma, eds. 2013. The Sage handbook of family business. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Miller, Danny, and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller. 2005. Managing for the Long Run: Lessons in Competitive Advantage from Great Family Businesses. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Napolitano, Maria R., Vittoria Marino, and Jari Ojala. 2015. "In search of an integrated framework of business longevity." Business History 57 (7): 955-969.
Nordlund Edvinsson, Therese. 2016. "Standing in the shadow of the corporation: women’s contribution to Swedish family business in the early twentieth century." Business History 58 (4): 532-546.
Ortega, Juan, and Angel Hermosilla. 2002. Cincuenta años del CEAM y de la metalurgia catalana. Barcelona: CEAM.
Perricone, Philip J., John R. Earle, and Ian M. Taplin 2001. "Patterns of Succession and Continuity in Family-Owned Businesses. Study of an Ethnic Community." Family Business Review 14 (2): 105-121.
Riviezzo, Angelo, Mika Skippari, and Antonella Garofano. 2015. "Who wants to live forever: exploring 30 years of research on business longevity." Business History 57 (7): 970-987.
Sasaki, Innan, and Hidekazu Sone. 2015. "Cultural approach to understanding the long-term survival of firms – Japanese Shinise firms in the sake brewing industry." Business History 57 (7): 1020-1036.
Scheffler, W., C. Spengel, and T. Büttner. 2004. Erbschaftsteuerbelastung im internationalen Vergleich. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Schulze, Max-Stephan, ed. 1999. Western Europe. Economic and Social Change Since 1945. London: Longman.
Schürmann, W., and K. Körfgen. 1987. Familienunternehmen auf dem Weg zur Börse. Ein Leitfaden für potentielle Börsenkandidaten mit Beispielen aus der Praxis. München: C. H. Beck.
Sharma, Kamal R., and Mukund R. Dixit. 2018. "Longevity challenges and leadership interventions: Strategy journeys of two Indian banks." Business History 60 (2): 178-201.
Sharma, Pramodita, and Carlo Salvato 2013. "Family firm longevity: A balancing act between continuity and change." In A global revolution: The endurance of large family businesses around the world, edited by P. Fernández Pérez and A. Colli, 34-56. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Spode, H., H. Volkmann, G. Morsch, and R. Hudemann. 1992. Statistik der Arbeitskämpfe in Deutschland. Deutsches Reich 1936/37, Westzonen und Berlin 1945 - 1948, Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1949 - 1980. Sankt Katharinen: Scripta-Mercaturae-Verl.
Spur, G. 1991. Vom Wandel der industriellen Welt durch Werkzeugmaschinen. Eine kulturgeschichtliche Betrachtung der Fertigungstechnik. München, Wien: Fachbuchverlag Leipzig.
Stamm, Isabell, and Christina Lubinski. 2011. "Crossroads of Family Business Research and Firm Demography. A Critical Assessment of Family Business Survival Rates." Journal of Family Business Strategy 2 (3): 117-127.
Tàpies, Josep. 2011. "Empresa familiar: un enfoque multidisciplinary." Universia Business Review 32: 12-25.
Tàpies, Josep. 2009. Empresa familiar: ni tan pequeña, ni tan joven. Barcelona: Fundacion Jesus Serra.
Tàpies, Josep, and María Fernández Moya. 2012. "Values and longevity in family business: evidence from a cross‐cultural analysis." Journal of Family Business Management 2 (2): 130-146.
Temin, Peter. 1995. "The ‘Koreaboom’ in West Germany. Fact or Fiction?" Economic History Review 48 (4): 737-753.
Ward, John. L. 1987. Keeping the Family Business Healthy. How to Plan for Continuing Growth, Profitability, and Family Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wieandt, A. 1994. "Innovation and the Creation, Development and Destruction of Markets in the World Machine Tool industry." Small Business Economics 6:421-437.
Wright, Mike, JamesJ. Chrisman, Jess H. Chua, and Lloyd P. Steier. 2014. "Family Enterprise and Context." Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 38 (6): 1247-1260
Yacob, Shakila. 2012. "Trans-Generational Renewal as Managerial Succession: The Behn Meyer Story (1840–2000)." Business History 54 (7): 1166-1185.
