The Territorial Organization of Entrepreneurial Relationships in Andalusia: 1857-1959

Abstract

The level of economic integration is considered a good indicator of the formation of a regional economic space. However, the classical variables usually employed (like capital and labor mobility, prices convergence, or the articulation of transportation systems) have not taken into account the behavior of the entrepreneurial factor.

The application of the Social Networks Analysis methodology to the study of business incorporation in Andalusia in the long term (1857-1959) has allowed the authors to show how to structure a business space unto itself in an economy peripheral to the large Spanish industrial centers, and influenced by foreign companies in key sectors, such as mining. At the same time, this methodological indicator establishes that the Andalusian business space existed as such prior to the economic integration of other regional variables hitherto considered to measure this important question.