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Networking capability building in the multinational enterprise: ITT and the Spanish adventure (1924–1945)
Abstract
This article goes into the renewed main theories on the evolution of the multinational enterprise (MNE) providing evidence about how MNEs develop networking capabilities to strengthen their position in host markets characterised by uncertainty. In particular, the operations in Spain of the largest telecom group of the interwar period, ITT, are examined through an extensive use of both diplomatic and corporate records. It is argued that the alliances developed by the multinational around the host market's political and business elite, enhanced by the support given by the US government, allowed ITT to preserve their interests in the country in turbulent times characterised by rising economic nationalism and instability in international and local markets. The alliances set around locals, furthermore, compensated ITT's lack of both institutional and business market knowledge, that is, ITT's liability of foreignness and outsidership when entering Spain.
... 2 This foreign control became very controversial along the first two years of the Second Republic (Calvo Calvo 2010, p. 170;Martínez Ovejero 2004), giving rise to a heated political debate in Spain. This control made the Company feel in a delicate position before the arrival of the Popular Front government in February 1936 and explains, in part, the support of much of its board to the military rebellion of July (Rivas García 2018, p. 148), 3 support that, in the long run, was not rewarded by the new regime as the Company was questioned for continuing to operate in both areas during the conflict (Calvo Calvo 2010;Álvaro Moya 2015;Soler Ferrán 2021, p. 66), and even at the first years of the second World War, the Spanish government. ...
... 16 Unsurprisingly, when the attempted coup became a long-term conflict, Mestre was appointed to organize the CTNE in the rebel zone. (Barciela López and López Ortiz 2014) has studied the situation of companies in both areas during the Civil War, (Calvo Calvo 2010;Álvaro Moya 2015) have studied the organizational aspects of the company, while (Soler Ferrán 2021) has reviewed the technical aspects and the vicissitudes of the deployment of the network during the conflict. The Spanish telephone network before the war had a marked radial character so that, with Madrid in the hands of the Republican Government, it was necessary to improvise solutions to connect the different network segments controlled by the rebels. ...
This paper studies the causes, conditions, and consequences of the process of absorption of the insular telephone network of the Cabildo de Tenerife (RTIT by its Spanish acronym) by the National Telephone Company of Spain (CTNE) in 1938. This process, which was presented as a friendly purchase beneficial to both parties, was actually strongly influenced by the special circumstances of the Civil War. The conditions that contributed to this decision are analysed, such as the financial situation of the Cabildo, the disciplinary processes suffered by the personnel considered disaffected by the military regime, or the situation of the company's management. The efforts made by CTNE to incorporate this network are also analyzed, as well as its consequences for both entities, particularly for the insular institution, which suffered a significant decrease in its revenues.
... Only a few business historical works have explored the reasons for IJV termination, in sharp contrast to the larger number that focus on the role of the IJV (Álvaro-Moya, 2015;Colli, 2014;Jones, 2003;Lee & Jin, 2009;McGovern & McLean, 2017;Richardson, 1984) and its operation and management (Michie, 1978;Pugach, 1982). Moreover, due to the longitudinal nature of business history research (Langley, 2009;Menard, 2008;Wilkins, 2009), the limited range of works on this topic, such as Pilkington (1996), have all regarded the formation, post-formation and termination of the IJV as a seamless whole. ...
... Furthermore, a popular theory explaining the deterioration of the host government -MNC bargaining relationship is the obsolescing bargain theory (OBT) (Vernon, 1971;Haggard, 1989;Gould & Winters, 2007;Dunning & Lundan, 2008;Álvaro-Moya, 2015;Abdelrehim & Toms, 2017). Based on the extractive and manufacturing industry, it attributes the deterioration to the MNCs' obsolescing bargaining power when their investment was sunk and the host government acquired the management capability. ...
In the late twentieth century, the international joint venture (IJV) became an increasingly important yet unstable organisational form of international business. Based on insights provided by the Mid-Med Bank of Malta during the period 1975-1979, this article argues that the unanticipated termination of IJVs has endogeneity due to the bounded reliability of their partners’ decision makers, developed from the formative stage and influenced by inter/intra organisational relationships along the evolution of the IJVs. The findings thus contribute to our understanding of the nature of bounded reliability, contractual governance and the bargaining process. © 2019
... Additionally, the deregulation of telecommunications has attracted significant research interest (Bauer, 2010;Davids, 2005;Eliassen et al., 2013;Farrell, 1997;Nayak, 2021;Nayak & Maclean, 2013;Nevalainen, 2017Nevalainen, , 2018Schneider, 1994Schneider, , 2018Spiller & Cardilli, 1997). There are also a number of business history studies on the historical development of the telecom sector and the emergence of monopolies, with a focus on individual companies, markets, or both (Álvaro-Moya, 2015;Anchordoguy, 2001;Clifton et al., 2011a;Hochfelder, 2002;Hultén & Mölleryd, 2003;Huurdeman, 2003;John, 2010;Lernevall & Åkesson, 1997). ...
After 1980, the telecom industry rapidly changed. Several new technologies were introduced, and telecom sectors in many countries opened for competition. The new technologies were available to all operators, but not all technologies assumed the same risks. Drawing upon rich archival sources from the Swedish telecom operator Televerket (after 1993, Telia), we examine the investment in and management of one new technology – ISDN. By exploring the choices and rationales for initiating and ending a technology project, we find that they may be pursued for political reasons – what we call ‘investment as corporate political activity’, and that many years of losses are sometimes not enough to abandon these projects. We also identify a monopolist logic in which projects can be maintained for use as bargaining chips in negotiations over deregulation or options to expand in markets after deregulation.
... Las subáreas encontradas se ubican en el segmento de las hojas. Como resultado de lo anterior y validando las diferentes visiones e investigaciones, las empresas multinacionales (EMN) desarrollan las CR para fortalecer su posicionamiento en los mercados caracterizados por la incertidumbre [20]. En cuanto a la tecnología de la información (TI), Chen et al [21] conceptualiza como las TI permiten el desarrollo del networking de la cadena de suministros (CS), que significa capitalizar el conjunto de recursos de la CS y, de igual manera, administrar nuevas combinaciones de recursos de la CS para satisfacer las necesidades futuras del mercado, generando con ello, una ventaja competitiva y convirtiéndose en una estrategia fundamental para el crecimiento de las empresas [22]. ...
Resumen En este trabajo se realiza una exploración de la literatura sobre las competencias en networking en términos de publicaciones, autores y fuentes. Para desarrollar este estudio, se hizo un análisis de red de citaciones basados en la teoría de grafos y se identificaron las diferentes subáreas del campo del conocimiento a partir de la teoría de clusterización. Las herramientas utilizadas para este análisis fueron el paquete bibliométrico de R-studio conocido como bibliometrix y el software de visualización de grafos denominado Gephi. Los resultados permitieron identificar tres subáreas definidas así: la adquisición de capacidades competitivas y evolución a través del networking en startups; el papel del networking en la internacionalización y el networking como una ventaja competitiva.
This paper is published in Open Access.
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https://rio.upo.es/entities/publication/229b5289-bba8-4c21-a032-1997dee4b640
Best wishes,
Fernando.
This study examines the timing of the first foreign direct investment (FDI). It explores how the conceptualization and, hence, the understanding of time affects our insights into major internationalization decisions in organizations; specifically, that of navigating into the unknown waters associated with making a first FDI. We introduce a multitemporal approach by drawing on the different temporalities prevalent in history and in business and management to build a platform for analysis that provides a suitable combination of richness and contrast. By examining the process toward making a major internationalization decision in terms of clock, event, stages, and cyclical concepts of time, we gain valuable but also varied insights about a complex process. We conclude that to understand any organization's process of international strategy formation at a certain point (or period) in time, its particularities need to be appreciated in some detail. While the details in this study are unique to the case of Harvard Business School's decision in 1971 to make its first FDI, we argue that the main features of the process are common to conceptualizing the internationalization decision process. As such, the findings should apply more generally.
The world is witnessing a growth in economic nationalism, especially in countries like the United States and United Kingdom, where this would scarcely have been predicted a few years ago. These developments threaten the internationalization of services and gains made through various global trading arrangements. Moreover, there are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic will further undermine supranational forms of governance and nurture the trend towards protectionism and economic nationalism. We undertake a systemic literature review on economic nationalism and services internationalization to identify research themes. The findings of the study have implications for policymakers, and we provide directions for future research.
This article explores the long-term effects of foreign direct investment on the human capital development of host economies, based on the historical analysis of the Spanish operations of four leading American firms: ITT, J. Walter Thompson, Merck Sharp & Dohme, and John Deere. Our research shows that the training and working practices of these companies had a positive impact on the Spanish subsidiaries in terms of technological upgrading and managerial development. However, the local context was also relevant, through mandatory agreements that empowered local partners from the start and the availability of locally educated professionals eager to absorb new knowledge.
On December 29, 1926, His Majesty King Alfonso XIII accompanied by His Royal Highness the Infante Fernando and the President of the Spanish Government, General Primo de Rivera, presided the inaugural formalities of the automatic telephone service in the city of Madrid. The formal ceremony was held at the exchange located in the district of Salamanca. A totally independent and entirely new telephone plant was installed together with the existing one, so the substitution of automatic for manual service was done in one go, in contrast to the general and common practice in large cities. In this communication, the motives behind this polemic and expensive decision will be shown. They were not only the oldness of the network and of the telephone equipment, as the CTNE said, there were also important commercial interests as well as technical ones. I. INTRODUCCIÓN El 29 de diciembre de 1926, Su Majestad el Rey Don Alfonso XIII, en compañía de Su Alteza Real el Infante Don Fernando y del Presidente del Directorio Militar, el general Primo de Rivera, inauguraba el servicio telefónico automático de la ciudad de Madrid, en un solemne acto celebrado en la central telefónica del barrio de Salamanca. Fue la culminación de un plan diseñado por la International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) para automatizar completamente la red telefónica urbana de Madrid; plan que fue ejecutado por la Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNE) en tan sólo dieciséis meses. A resultas del mismo, se instaló una planta telefónica, totalmente independiente y enteramente nueva, junto a la planta ya existente, realizándose el tránsito del sistema manual al automático de una sola vez, al contrario de lo que aconsejaba la práctica común en las grandes ciudades.
Purpose
– This paper seeks to offer a model on the evolution of the multinational business enterprise (MBE). It is meant to be an alternative to the eclectic paradigm, the preeminent theoretical tool applied in studies of the multinational enterprise (MNE) and foreign direct investment. The label MBE aims at moving focus from structure of production to change processes in business relations and entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
– While the eclectic paradigm is grounded in neo-classical economics meant primarily to be applied in studies of macroeconomic interest and is based on assumptions not applicable in studies of individual firms, the model of the MBE is meant to be used in studies at the micro-level. It is rooted in assumptions consistent with behavioural theory consequently being more realistic. The model is based on the Uppsala model with input from studies on dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurship research and research on management under uncertainty.
Findings
– The realistic assumptions of the model imply that it is relevant for understanding the dynamics of strategy and management of the MBE.
Research limitations/implications
– As the model aims at enriching our understanding of the dynamics of the MBE the paper recommends empirical longitudinal studies of firms.
Originality/value
– Realistic and relevant assumptions imply that the model differs in critical respects from received theory in international business.
The 'Resource-Based View of the Firm' has emerged over the last fifteen years as one of the dominant perspectives used in strategic management. It addresses the fundamental research question of strategic management: Why it is that some firms persistently outperform others? Resource-Based Theory provides a considered overview of this theory, including the latest developments, from one of the key thinkers in its development. In broad terms it offers an alternative to Michael Porter's approach, focusing more on the competences and capabilities of the firm, rather than its positioning in its chosen markets. Jay B. Barney has long been recognised as one of the leading contributor to the resource-based theory literature. In this book he has collaborated with Delwyn N. Clark to produce the first book to examine the theory in a holistic and in-depth manner. The authors explore not only the applications of the theory in research, teaching, and practice, but also its early roots in traditional economic theory, development and proliferation in the 1990s, and later influence on management thinking.
This book examines the formulation of British and American policy between 1945 and 1955 towards one of the most hated regimes of the twentieth century. The Franco question, though apparently not of the first importance in the evolution of Cold War policy, nevertheless haunted British and American governments during this period. It posed a problem which epitomizes the difficulty of dealing with pariah regimes. As such, it highlights for historians the attempts of these two governments to straddle the contradictions inherent in the emerging dual system of the United Nations, or internationalism, on the one hand, and the older system of balance of power, played out by the super powers as the Cold War. Set as it is in the domestic and international context, it also exemplifies the problems faced today by individual governments and by the United Nations in dealing with questions of intervention or non-intervention in distasteful regimes.
Despite a shared interest in the analysis of complex organizations operating in complex environments, macro-organization theory and research on the multinational corporation have developed quite independently of each other. This book, the product of a collaborative endeavour by scholars from both fields, represents the first systematic effort to build a broad bridge between these two areas of research.
This is the second edition of the celebrated volume by Professor John H. Dunning, first published in 1993, which has now been not only updated but also enriched with the addition of a number of new topics. This addition was not least due to the expertise of the co-author, Sarianna Lundan, in the institutional aspects of international business and the internal governance of transnational corporations (TNCs). It is a comprehensive synthesis of all the theories in International Business based on extremely rich data evaluation in almost all fields of TNC activities and their environment. It is a “creative masterpiece which unbundles the DNA of the field of international business” as described by Alan Rugman in his assessment of this volume.
Professor Dunning offers a thoughtful paper (Dunning, 2002) concerning relational assets and international business activity. The work is sweeping in its scope and concepts. Given the breadth, my commentary inevitably will need to focus on some aspects at the expense of others. Rather than to critique the paper exhaustively, then, my goal is to identify intriguing aspects of the argument and to offer some tentative suggestions for extending and revising the argument.
The Spanish Civil War has gone down in history for the horrific violence that it generated. The climate of euphoria and hope that greeted the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy was utterly transformed just five years later by a cruel and destructive civil war. Here Julián Casanova, one of Spain's leading historians, offers a magisterial new account of this critical period in Spanish history. He exposes the ways in which the Republic brought into the open simmering tensions between Catholics and hardline anticlericalists, bosses and workers, Church and State, order and revolution. In 1936 these conflicts tipped over into the sacas, paseos and mass killings which are still passionately debated today. The book also explores the decisive role of the international instability of the 1930s in the duration and outcome of the conflict. Franco's victory was in the end a victory for Hitler and Mussolini and for dictatorship over democracy.
At the time of its occurrence, the Spanish Civil War epitomized for the Western world the confrontation of democracy, fascism, and communism. An entire generation of Englishmen and Americans felt a deeper emotional involvement in that war than in any other world event of their lifetimes, including the Second World War. On the Continent, its "lessons," as interpreted by participants of many nationalities, have played an important role in the politics of both Western Europe and the People's Democracies. Everywhere in the Western world, readers of history have noted parallels between the Spanish Republic of 1931 and the revolutionary governments which existed in France and Central Europe during the year 1848. The Austrian revolt of October 1934, reminded participants and observers alike of the Paris Commune of 1871, and even the most politically unsophisticated observers could see in the Spain of 1936 all the ideological and class conflicts which had characterized revolutionary France of 1789 and revolutionary Russia of 1917. It is not surprising, therefore, that the worthwhile books on the Spanish Civil War have almost all emphasized its international ramifications and have discussed its political crises entirely in the vocabulary of the French and Russian revolutions. Relatively few of the foreign participants realized that the Civil War had arisen out of specifically Spanish circumstances. Few of them knew the history of the Second Spanish Republic, which for five years prior to the war had been grappling with the problems of what we now call an "underdeveloped nation." In Spanish Republic and the Civil War, Gabriel Jackson expounds the history of the Second Republic and the Civil War primarily as seen from within Spain.
Business groups and interfirm networks, the subjects of this article, along with cartels, consortia, industrial districts, innovation clusters, joint ventures, strategic alliances, unions, industry, and professional associations, are significant examples of organized cooperation in business. Cooperation has been, and continues to be, a primary force for change in business and in nature. What distinguishes business groups and interfirm networks from other examples of organized cooperation are, first, that they are composed of legally distinct firms and, second, that they persist for long periods of time. Thus, unions and professional associations differ on the first dimension, strategic alliances and joint ventures on the second. Business groups and interfirm networks are long-lasting federations of firms. They have been relatively unsung until lately. Interest has grown of late because business groups are identified as playing crucial roles in economic development, and interfirm networks in innovation, especially when complex coordination problems overwhelm firms.
Although there is a huge literature relevant to the history of relations between the state and business, this article's emphasis on international comparisons (Western Europe, Japan, and the United States) allows a distinct focus to be given to the analysis. The article draws attention to business as an instrument of the geopolitical strategy of governments and of internal social and political unification, as well as to more traditional ideological differences between countries. As a framework for analysis, geopolitical settings and political structures, as a supplement to ideological issues, shed considerable light on international differences in business-state relations. The article looks at two large land masses, the United States and continental Europe, plus two high-income island economies, Japan and Britain.
Governments have played an important role in business matters ever since the Industrial Revolution. As numerous studies have shown, there has been a very close relationship between the formation of the modern nation state and industrialization. In Germany and Italy, for example, the Second Industrial Revolution, that is, the development of the large-scale production of oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, steel, and automobiles toward the end of the nineteenth century, took place at about the same time as political unification. In most industrialized countries, the influence of the state in business matters increased considerably during the twentieth century — even outside exceptional times of war and national crisis. Especially after World War II, many governments in developed as well as less developed countries actively intervened at the industry and firm level. A reversal of this trend took place only during the last two decades of the twentieth century, when most governments started privatizing previously state-owned companies and public services and deregulating a vast array of business activities. In addition to bringing much needed resources into public budgets, these efforts were based on economic arguments. Thus, according to the so-called agency theory, publicly owned enterprises are likely to perform less well because they are not subject to the discipline of financial markets. In addition, the state as an owner usually pursues other objectives in addition to or instead of profit maximization.
This 2005 book is a comparative history of the economic organisation of energy, telecommunications and transport in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the role that private and public enterprise have played in the construction and operation of the railways, electricity, gas and water supply, tramways, coal, oil and natural gas industries, telegraph, telephone, computer networks and other modern telecommunications. The book begins with the arrival of the railways in the 1830s, charts the development of arms’ length regulation, municipalisation and nationalisation, and ends on the eve of privatisation in the 1980s. Robert Millward argues that the role of ideology, especially in the form of debates about socialism and capitalism, has been exaggerated. Instead the driving forces in changes in economic organisation were economic and technological factors and the book traces their influence in shaping the pattern of regulation and ownership of these key sectors of modern economies.
Business groups in emerging economies result when entrepreneurs and firms accumulate the capability for repeated industry entry. Such a capability, however, can be maintained as a valuable, rare, and inimitable skill only as long as asymmetric foreign trade and investment conditions prevail. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data on a variety of emerging economies were used to test this hypothesis and three other competing explanations. The importance of business groups grew with foreign trade and investment asymmetries. The managerial problems and opportunities surrounding the rise and decline of business groups are discussed, especially in the context of the current turmoil in emerging economies.
The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation in print. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize-winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the prestigious Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. From Colony to Superpower is the only thematic volume commissioned for the series. Here, George C. Herring uses foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of Americas dramatic rise from thirteen disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast to the worlds greatest superpower. A sweeping account of United States foreign relations and diplomacy, this magisterial volume documents Americas interaction with other peoples and nations of the world. Herring tells a story of stunning successes and sometimes tragic failures, captured in a fast-paced narrative that illuminates the central importance of foreign relations to the existence and survival of the nation, and highlights its ongoing impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. He shows how policymakers defined American interests broadly to include territorial expansion, access to growing markets, and the spread of an American way of life. Herring does all this in a story rich in human drama and filled with epic events. Statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, and Dean Acheson playe d key roles in Americas rise to world power. But Americas expansion as a nation also owes much to the adventurers and explorers, the sea captains, merchants and captains of industry, the missionaries and diplomats, who discovered or charted new lands, developed new avenues of commerce, and established and defended the nations interests abroad. From the American Revolution to the fifty-year struggle with communism and conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, From Colony to Superpower tells the dramatic story of Americas emergence as superpower--its birth in revolution, its troubled present, and its uncertain future.
Bob Millward is the right person to write a comparative volume on the role of the state and the market in creating, developing, and maintaining network utilities in energy, transport, and communications in Europe. He has already done much work covering a variety of aspects of this topic, and he understands the industries and the political issues involved.
This volume is halfway between a research monograph and a textbook. Though based largely on secondary sources, it is not comprehensive, even in the way that one might expect of a textbook. In general, this formula is not to be recommended, but is necessary in this case: almost all existing work looks only at one country without trying to find similarities across other countries. This is a serious omission on the part of the profession. This book represents a worthy first stab at filling this gap, and others who follow in Millward's footsteps will owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing together the literature and sources, as well as raising a number of issues.
Millward wants to know whether common factors can explain the relative importance of public and private ownership in different industries, different countries, and in different periods. Do factors such as ideology, technology, and risk have similar effects in different places and at different times? When does government choose to regulate, to subsidize, to own, or to do nothing at all? These are good questions, and it is frustrating for the reader—and no doubt more so for the author—that Millward finds the commonalities frustratingly few and far between. Yes, governments are always needed at some level when there are issues of rights of way. However, sometimes, governments seem to be involved when risks are high, and sometimes when risks are low and returns are certain. Sometimes, socialism appears to lead governments to intervene, but other government interventions look pretty capitalist, with government (especially, municipal government) running its industries for profit on similar lines to any for-profit company.
The book is divided into three sections, covering from 1830 to 1914, 1914 to 1945, and 1945 to 1990. Each section has a chapter on each area in which the public sector had a role, but the focus of the chapter varies (appropriately) with the period. Thus, for example, the chapter on energy in the first section looks at the creation of electricity supply, tramways, and new regulatory regimes, while the chapter in the interwar era looks instead at the building up of national electrical grids, and the postwar chapter considers energy security. Equally, the transport chapters cover the development of railways, the movement from rail to road, and the growth of aviation, respectively. This means that the reader can consider the role of government and regulation at important periods in the history of each sector.
Against that framework, driven by the limitations of both the literature and space, the reader has never been given a comprehensive and systematic European-wide guide to regulation and ownership for an industry till today. Indeed, some sections have little comparative material at all: as Millward himself notes of the section on the urban water supplies and public health “much of what follows relates to Britain” (p. 42). This is a shame, as this, surely, is a perfect area on which to investigate the sort of ideology-light governments that Millward notices as responsible for much of the growth in public enterprise throughout Europe. It doesn't matter whether one is of the left or right, whether one cares about the poor or not, good sewerage is an important public health issue for enterprising societies to take over action.
Where Millward is strongest is in documenting the sheer range of experience, in making it manageable, and in giving some structure, however, light, to what happened. Early variety can be explained, at least in part, by the ability of different states to intervene, and their different desires to do so for military or national building purposes. Later on, municipal enterprise becomes increasingly common, driven not by ideology, but by local pride and a desire for good management in monopoly sectors: municipal capitalism, and not municipal socialism. Finally, primarily after 1945, but...
Among the factors that have assured the success of units of “multinational” firms like the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, according to Professor Little, is the willingness of the parent's home government to use its diplomatic strengths to assure that a host government lives up to its contractual obligations, even after radical changes in its leadership. Using diplomatic correspondence of the United States with ITT and the Spanish Republic of the 1930s, he demonstrates the vital nature of these strengths at a time when the tensions between “communism” and “fascism” were new and vigorous, and reaches a startling conclusion about the sameness under the skin of the two ideologies where the rights of foreign concessionaries are concerned.
After fifty years of academic analysis of the multinational enterprise, we still know very little about its long-term interaction with local firms and entrepreneurs. This is a key issue to assess the contribution of foreign direct investment to economic growth. For this reason this article examines that interaction through the analysis of US direct investment in a relatively backward country, Spain until 1975. The results achieved: 1) stress the role played by local partners facilitating US firms’ entry and operations in the country; 2) show that the constitution of temporary joint ventures was an increasingly frequent mode of entry; 3) give evidence of an increasing involvement of US firms in the host market; 4) limit the effect on US firms of the economic nationalism that characterized the period of study; and 5) suggest that an environment favorable to cooperation between foreigners and domestic entrepreneurs was built throughout the 20th century.
This article explains the often neglected history of the Spanish telephone sector. Its main purpose is to examine the factors that determined the technological choices that were made in this sector, and to describe and analyze the growth of telephone networks in Spain and the rest of Europe between 1876 and 1924, a period marked by the internationalization of technology. It concludes that a complex range of factors, varying in their specific importance over the period, determined the pattern of technological diffusion in this sector. In the period dominated by Bell's patents, the sector was characterized by a high degree of technological homogeneity. However, once the licenses on these patents expired, a greater variety of technological devices were adopted in the sector, although this variety was limited by the control that the larger firms wielded over the market and policies of international cooperation. Spain, unable to keep pace with technological developments elsewhere in Europe, failed to establish its own national industry of telephone materials and equipment.
This book discusses the development of a theory on the growth of the firm. It is shown that the resources with which a particular firm is accustomed to working will shape the productive services its management is capable of rendering. The experience of management will affect the productive services that all its other resources are capable of rendering. As management tries to make the best use of the resources available, a ‘dynamic’ interacting process occurs which encourages growth but limits the rate of growth.