Family Businesses in Spain: Tracks Followed and Outcomes Reached by Those Among the Largest Thousand

Abstract

Family businesses experience greater difficulties in their growth efforts and organizational development than nonfamily businesses. This article presents the findings of a research study conducted to clarify the presence and evolution of family businesses using as the subject of analysis the firms that formed the group of the one thousand largest firms in 1972, 1982, and 1992. The results show that a large number of family businesses disappear; several of them close down because they cannot adapt to major structural changes, others are sold to multinational companies, many become nonfamily businesses because more nonfamily shareholders are incorporated, and others are sold to nonfamily businesses.