European Challenges and Opportunities: The Role of Europe in the Internationalisation of Spanish Firms

This chapter examines the role of Europe in the recent internationalisation of Spanish firms.1 As in other countries of the European periphery, in Spain this phenomenon is inseparable from three major processes: the modernisation of the Spanish economy, Spain’s formal integration into the European Union (1986), and the second globalisation wave. The fact that all this has taken place almost simultaneously has strongly affected the geography and patterns of internationalisation of most Spanish firms. We look first at the strong and persistent influence of a few advanced countries in Spanish management and performance. Then we look at the recent internationalisation of Spanish firms, identifying its main actors (former monopolies, banks, and family firms), markets (Latin America and Western Europe), and specialisation (services and labour-intensive manufacturing). Finally, a multiple case analysis based on 10 out of Spain’s top 50 multinational firms shows how the prospects and materialisation of the European integration have shaped the internationalisation of Spanish companies since the 1960s. We conclude that the EU has challenged and created opportunities for existing national enterprises through privatisation, deregulation and concentration. Most of our firms, however, have kept much of their inherited corporate culture to strengthen their domestic leadership and globalise.