as old as history
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This article was downloaded by: [Biblioteca Universidad Complutense de Madrid]On: 20 January 2014, At: 00:17Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
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As old as history: Family-controlled
business groups in transport services:
the case of SEUR Elena San Romána, Paloma Fernández pérezb & Águeda Gil Lópeza
a Departamento de Historia e Instituciones Económicas II,Facultad de CCEE y EE, Campus de Somosaguas, Madrid, Spainb Departament d'Història i Institucions Econòmiques/Centred'Estudis Antoni de Capmany, Facultat Economia i Empresa,Barcelona, SpainPublished online: 16 Jan 2014.
To cite this article: Elena San Román, Paloma Fernández pérez & Águeda Gil López , BusinessHistory (2014): As old as history: Family-controlled business groups in transport services: the case
of SEUR, Business History, DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2013.851523
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2013.851523
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As old as history: Family-controlled business groups in transportservices: the case of SEUR
Elena San Romana*, Paloma Fernandez Perezb and Agueda Gil Lopeza
a Departamento de Historia e Instituciones Econo micas II, Facultad de CCEE y EE, Campus de
Somosaguas, Madrid, Spain; b
Departament d’Historia i Institucions Economiques/Centre d’Estudis Antoni de Capmany, Facultat Economia i Empresa, Barcelona, Spain
This article presents empirical evidence about the contribution of family-controlled
business groups as highly efficient alternatives to the large vertically integrated andprofessionally managed corporation in specific institutional and market environments.This hypothesis is tested with a single case study, SEUR, in the Spanish transportservices sector. SEUR is one of the most prominent Spanish courier companies. It wasfounded during Franco’s dictatorship, expanded in democratic times, andimaginatively adapted to the financial challenges of the late globalisation at the endof the twentieth century, while maintaining the traditional values based on personaltrust and family ties.
Keywords: family business; business groups; network business groups; expresstransport; Spanish business history
Introduction
Late developing economies have had a perfect market and institutional environment for
business groups, as a number of authors have indicated for many European, Asian, and
Latin American countries.1 Following these authors, business groups have often helped to
correct market imperfections, have shown strong executive skills, and have enjoyed the
frequent support of authoritarian governments, thus constituting an alternative to the big
Chandlerian corporation. Their organisation, in a diversity of independent firms linked by
formal or informal ties, has yielded some experiences of business success, depending on
the stage of development of the sectors and the markets in which they have operated in past
and present times, and on the strict or flexible regulations affecting their activities
throughout their history.
Business groups are increasingly a subject of study in peripheral European countries
like Spain, where their ownership and governance structures are often under the control of
families and dynasties. Some significant studies for Spain are those by Valdaliso on the
Aznar family, Dıaz Morlan on the Ybarras family, Fernandez Perez on the Moreda Riviere
Trefilerias group, and San Roman on the Fierros.2 As Josep Tapies, an expert in Spanish
family business groups, observed after his research on around 3000 large Spanish firms,
this kind of entrepreneurial organisation is common in Spain.3 According to this literature,
business groups in Spain are not a brand new type of business organisation. They haveexisted at least since the beginning of the industrialisation period, in the late nineteenth
q 2014 Taylor & Francis
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Business History, 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2013.851523
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century, in capital-intensive sectors where foreign and public capital dominated. Also,
business groups have been present throughout the first decades of the twentieth century, in
less technologically intensive sectors such as light metal processing, where private local
initiatives proliferated. This general framework was reinforced after the civil war of
1936–39, with the backward-looking economic policy of Franco’s dictatorship (1939–
75), and continued – with very different rules of the game – with the outward-lookingpolicies of democratic governments which integrated Spanish institutions in the European
Economic Community after 1986.
This article contributes to analysing how business groups may appear, expand, and
succeed during very different institutional frameworks, whether authoritarian and
democratic, as a response to new demands in expanding dynamic markets. Moreover, we
present theoretical arguments which reinforce the idea that in different institutional and
market environments this type of business group may represent highly efficient
alternatives to the large vertically integrated and professionally managed corporation.
This hypothesis is tested with a single case study, SEUR, in the transport services
sector. This appeared in Franco’s time, expanded during democracy, and adaptedimaginatively to the financial challenges of the late globalisation at the end of
the twentieth century, while maintaining traditional values based on personal trust and
family ties.
This case study approach has been chosen for two reasons. First, most of the leading
courier groups in the world are large, integrated Chandlerian companies, whereas the
business group of SEUR has been able to avoid that type of organisation, and become one
of the most important courier groups of companies in Spain, with 6600 employees, a fleet
of 3700 vehicles for road transport and a turnover of e558 million in 2011. Secondly,
SEUR is a business group that is not controlled by a single family or a reduced group of
families, as is often the case in large business groups in Asia or Latin America. The grouphas operated with more than 50 business-owning families, which leads us to classify this
group as a network-type business group, according to Colpan and Hikino’s classification: a
constellation of legally independent companies that cooperate for common long-term
goals.4 SEUR was not, and is not, a group controlled by a single family, but several family-
controlled firms organised in a rather cooperative horizontal way. The different families
divided the operations of the business according to geographical criteria. Each of them was
made responsible for promoting the business in one or several Spanish Autonomous
Communities. The partners were family, relatives or friends who shared very similar
values and social backgrounds. Trust, solidarity and entrepreneurship were the key ties
that made them start activities in a sector where they lacked any previous significant know-
how or experience. Literature has reinforced the importance of social networks in the
foundation and development of business groups.5 Networking between individuals who
share similar values and the same social background is a business strategy that has
historically allowed business survival under uncertain environments, as in the case of
SEUR.6 As Powell showed in a seminal work on network businesses, trust, institutional
and social context with particular combinations of legal, political or economic factors are
willing supporters of network forms.7 This article reinforces the reasons that Powell
pointed out as the main factors that foster the creation of network business groups.
Courier transport was a relatively new niche market in Spain in the 1960s, and the
general restrictions on foreign investment in Spain during Franco’s regime made them
flourish and grow spectacularly in the 1970s and 1980s. After a failed attempt to go publicon the Spanish stock market in 2000, the French group GeoPost bought a part of SEUR in
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T a b l e 1 .
C o u r i e r g l o b a l m a r k e t : m a i n c o m p a n i e s i n 2 0 1 1 .
C o m p a n i e s
D e u t s c h e
P o s t - D H L
U P S
F e d E x
T N T
U S
P o s t a l
S e r v i c e
L a P o s t e
P
o s t e I t a l i a n e
T y p e o f
c o m p a n y
P r i v a t e l y h e l d c o r -
p o r a t i o n . F o r m e r
p u b l i c c o m p a n y
p r i v a t i s e d
P r i v a t e l y h e l d
c o r p o r a t i o n .
P r i v a t e l y h e l d
c o r p o r a t i o n .
P r i v a t e l y h e l d
c o r p o r a t i o n .
I n d
e p e n d e n t
f e d
e r a l a g e n c y
P u b l i c c a p i t a l
c o r p o r a t i o n
P
u b l i c c a p i t a l
c
o r p o r a t i o n
D a t e o f
e s t a b l i s h
m e n t
1 9 6 9
1 9 0 7
1 9 7 1
1 9 4 6
1 7 7 5
1 5 7 6
1
8 6 2
N a m e o f
f o u n d e r ( s ) A d r i a n D e l b e y ,
L a r r y H i l l b l o m ,
R o b e r t L y n n
J a m e s E .
C a s e y
F r e d e r i c k W
. S m i t h K e n T h o m a s
U S
A ( B e n j a m i n
F r a
n k l i n
i n i t i a t i v e )
F r e n c h s t a t e
I
t a l i a n s t a t e
M a i n a c t i v i t i e s
E x p r e s s , F r e i g h t ,
G l o b a l f o r w a r d i n g
a n d s u p p l y c h a i n
D o m e s t i c p a c k a g e
( t i m e - d e fi n i t e
d e l i v e r i e s ) , I n t e r -
n a t i o n a l p a c k a g e ,
S u p p l y c h a i n a n d
f r e i g h t
E x p r e s s , R o
a d w a y
P a c k a g e , F r e i g h t ,
S u p p l y c h a i n a n d
s e v e r a l d o c u
m e n t
m a n a g e m e n t s e r -
v i c e s
N a t i o n a l a n d i n t e r -
n a t i o n a l e x p r e s s
d e l i v e r y , F r e i g h t ,
S p e c i a l h a n d l i n g
s e r v i c e s a n d
i n d u s t r y s o l u t i o n s
D o m e s t i c ,
e x p
r e s s a n d
p r i o r i t y m a i l ,
P a r c e l p o s t ,
M e
d i a m a i l a n d
l i b r a r y m a i l
M a i l , P a r c e l ,
E x p r e s s , B a n k -
i n g a n d r e t a i l
o u t l e t s
M
a i l , B a n k i n g ,
E
x p r e s s d e l i v -
e
r y , L o g i s t i c s ,
P
a r c e l s a n d
p
h i l a t e l y
M a i n m a
r k e t s
E u r o p e
A m e r i c a
A m e r i c a
E u r o p e
U S
A
E u r o p e
E
u r o p e
P l a c e i n
r a n k i n g
G l o b a l F
o r t u n e 5 0 0
9 3
1 6 6
2 6 1
–
1 0 9
3 0 6
3
2 9
H o m e c o
u n t r y
G e r m a n y a n d U S A
U S A
U S A
A u s t r a l i a
U S
A
F r a n c e
I
t a l y ( c o n t i n u e d )
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T a b l e 1 .
( C o n t i n u e d ) .
C o m p a n i e s
D e u t s c h e
P o s t - D H L
U P S
F e d E x
T N T
U S
P o s t a l
S e r v i c e
L a P o s t e
P
o s t e I t a l i a n e
E m p l o y e
e s
4 1 8 , 9 4 6
4 0 0 , 6 0 0
2 4 5 , 1 0 9
1 6 0 , 3 9 1
6 2 7 , 7 9 8
2 7 6 , 5 5 5
1
4 9 , 7 0 3
R e v e n u e
s
( $ m i l l i o
n )
7 1 , 1 2 0 . 9
4 9 , 5 4 5
3 4 , 7 3 4
1 1 , 3 2 9
6 7 , 0 5 2
3 1 , 3 7 7 . 8
2
8 , 9 2 2 . 2
P r o fi t s ( $ m i l l i o n )
3 , 3 6 5 . 5
3 , 4 8 8
1 , 1 8 4
6 6 0
2 8
, 5 0 5
7 2 8 . 5
1
, 3 4 8 . 2
A s s e t s ( $ m i l l i o n )
5 0 , 6 6 6 .
6
3 3 , 5 9 7
2 4 , 9 0 2
–
2 4 , 3 2 6
2 4 9 , 8 9 1 . 6
1
2 8 , 4 3 4 . 6
S t o c k h o l d e r s ’
e q u i t y ( $
m i l l i o n )
1 4 , 1 0 2 . 6
7 , 9 7 9
1 3 , 8 1 1
–
2 1
3 , 8 7 3
5 , 9 9 0 . 7
5
, 8 8 0 . 8
P r o fi t s a s % o f
( a ) R e
v e n u e s
5
7
3
–
2 1
3
2
3
3
. 5
( b ) A s
s e t s
6 . 6
1 0 . 4
4 . 8
–
2 3
5
2
1 . 3
7
. 3
S o u r c e : G
l o b a l F o r t u n e 5 0 0 ( 2 0 1 1 ) .
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2004. Nowadays GeoPost owns 56.20% of the company. The remainder is held by the
founding family firms.
This article is divided into four sections. The first gives a brief overview of courier
activity, describing the main global actors and its historical evolution. The second part
examines the internal structure of the Spanish courier market. The third deals with the
history of SEUR: its foundation and expansion and its configuration as a network-typebusiness group. The fourth and last section focuses on the reasons that explain the
configuration of SEUR as a business group and the advantages and disadvantages of this
form of organisation.
1. The courier market in the Western world
The courier and express industry includes the provision of value-added, door-to-door
transport and deliveries of next-day or time-definite shipments across the globe.8 These
activities have a remarkable influence on the global economy. The contribution of the
express industry to European GDP reached e23 billion in 2010, supporting over 600,000 jobs.9
If we focus on ownership, there are three types of company in the express market:
private companies, public postal operators (in which express activities are part of their
core business), and, finally, companies that are the result of mergers between postal
operators and private firms. In the first group, the North American groups UPS and FedEx
are the most prominent.10 The United States Postal Service (USPS), the French firm La
Post or the Italian one Poste Italiana are outstanding examples of the second
group. Finally, Deutsche Post-DHL and TNT belong to the last group.11 Table 1 shows
the main economic data of these quoted firms in 2011 and some historical information
about each of them.
The express industry came into existence at the beginning of the last century, when the
rapid growth of global markets and world trade extended the demand for carrier services.
At that time a niche market was formed in freight transport, untouched by the public postal
operators. The first private companies were created in the United States to satisfy
increased demand for private and fast courier services. As Table 2 shows, the three top
companies that currently lead the global express mark et come from the US. The table
includes TNT as the fourth leading company in 2009.12
In this first stage, the economic role of entrepreneurship is highlighted in all cases and
the entrepreneurs founded companies capable of facing the growing demand for fast and
reliable transport services. However, there were different ideas about how to develop an
express delivery service and different economic means to achieve it. Four outstandingexamples are representative of the diversity. First, Jim Casey, who founded UPS in Seattle
Table 2. Market shares of the main carriers, by geographic area in 2009 (%).
America Western EuropeEastern Europe,
Middle East and Africa Asia Pacific
DHL 16 37 46 34FEDEX 57 10 – 21UPS 24 23 9 10
TNT – 16 12 –Others 3 14 23 18
Source: DBK , ‘Sectores’ (2011).
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when he was 19, with only $100 loaned by a friend. His company concentrated on
delivering ground-based parcels of a weight above the limit reserved by law for the US
Postal Service. A different business model was TNT, founded by Ken Thomas when he
was 33. All his capital was a small amount of money and a single truck. It was an
Australian-based company which sought to dominate the small Australian domestic
market, then tried to break into new European and American markets. In a third example,the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith, while at Yale University wrote an essay highlighting the
need for a ‘next-day’ delivery service in the United States.13 The idea seemed so absurd to
the academic world that the essay received a low mark. Despite this, Smith kept his idea in
mind and, while serving in the Army, learned carefully how the military delivery process
was developed. When he finished his military service, he achieved his dream of creating a
business that did not exist: a night express courier service. In this case the start-up capital
was greater than that used by his above-mentioned competitors: $80 million provided by
several investors, including his brothers. This capital allowed the company to develop an
innovative organisational method based on three concepts: (i) night air transport, (ii)
operation based in a central platform for distributing documents and parcels, (iii) and atracking system for monitoring deliveries in real time.
Finally, in a fourth example of diversity in this new business, Adrian Dalsey, Larry
Hillblom and Robert Lynn, founders of DHL, also developed a new business model shortly
after their graduation. They launched a service that no other company offered because they
managed to reduce the time spent in customs procedures. Their business idea was oriented
to an international service based on time-sensitive, low-weight but high-value goods,
especially documents, trying to take advantage of world trade and economic globalisation.
In a short time, the international courier leaders began to diversify and grow, starting
the second stage of courier history. They offered new services in addition to express
transport, ranging from integrated logistics, national and international transport of full orpartial loads, air and ocean freight services, insurance and consulting, among others. At
41%
77%
50%
12%
36%
15%
44%
57%
13%
32%
21%
50%
35%
F r a n c e
G e r m a n y
U n i t e d
K i n g d o m
S p a i n
I t a l y
S w e d e n
N e t h e r l a n d s
P o l a n d
S w i t z e r l a n d
R u s s i a
T u r k e y
B e l g i u m
I r e l a n d
Figure 1. Joint market share of leading express carriers, by European countries, in 2010. Note: Thecompanies included are: DHL, UPS, FedEx, TNT, GLS/Royal Mail and DPD/GeoPost. Source: A.T.Kearney (2011b).
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this stage, which lasted throughout the last quarter century, some public postal operators
began to work in a market that presented, at this moment, great opportunities for profit. For
example, in 1999 the French public postal operator La Poste entered the courier business
by creating GeoPost.
The third stage of courier history began with the twenty-first century. The
liberalisation and globalisation of the European express industry, and the changes incommunication technologies led to a broad transformation of postal services. As a mature
economic sector, the express industry began a process of supply concentration and
strategic partnership.14 The large operators launched numerous mergers and acquisitions
of companies whereby they strengthened their market share, their geographical coverage
and their portfolio of services. Through these operations, the multinationals have tried to
seek and conquer new emerging markets by the acquisition of host firms. In recent years,
Asian and Latin American markets are the favourite destinations for investors.
As a result, the sector concentration has not stopped growing. Figure 1 indicates the
market shares of the large international operators in the European express market. As the
figure shows, the leading carriers control the main European markets, with an average jointshare of 45% in 2011b.15
2. The Spanish courier market: business structure
The Spanish courier industry is formed by a large number of companies, mostly small in
size: in 2010 6045 firms operated in this market as stated on the website of the Spanish
National Statistics Institute.16
Although large foreign multinational groups operate in Spain, a few large Spanish-
based companies dominate the market. As Table 3 shows, from 2004 to 2010 five
companies hold an average 40% of the market. All these companies, SEUR, MRW, Nacex,
Chronoexpres and DHL Iberia, share its Spanish origins except the last one.17 Table 4
summarises some characteristics of these five market leaders.
What are the main features of the express carriers that work in the Spanish courier
market? In broad terms, there are five types of firms according to their ownership and
origin, as seen in Table 5: (i) subsidiaries of foreign companies, (ii) Spanish firms acquired
by foreign multinationals, (iii) Spanish companies that have evolved from ordinary
transport to courier, (iv) Spanish firms that were established to operate on courier
Table 3. Market share of the top five companies in the Spanishcourier sector, 2004–10.
Year Share (in %)
2004 41.42005 40.12006 40.22007 40.52008 41.22009 43.52010 44.3
Note: Figures are from the business parcel market segment. (It is usual todistinguish two segments in the courier sector: business parcel and industrial
parcel. The former includes activities with a greater component of emergencyand deliveries of lightweight goods. The second one is usually related toregular and scheduled shipments especially to industrial companies.)Source: A.T. Kearney (2011a).
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T a b l e 4 .
M a j o r e x p r e s s c a r r i e r s i n t h e S p
a n i s h m a r k e t .
N a m e
D a t e o f
E s t a b l i s h m e n t
F o u n d e r
D e l e g a t i o n s i n
S p a i n ( o w n a n
d
c o l l a b o r a t o r s )
F l e e t ( t r u c k s
a n d d e l i v e r y
v e h i c l e s )
A i r c r a f
t fl e e t
S a l e s
2 0 0 9 a
S a l e s
2 0 1 0 a
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
p a r t n e r s
S E U R
1 9 4 2
J u s t o Y u ´ f e r a
M o r e t h a n 1 0 0 0
3 7 0 0
–
5 6 9
5 6 9
G e o P o s t ( 5 5 % )
M R W
1 9 7 7
F r a
n c i s c o
M a
r t ı ´ n F r ı ´ a s
6 2 1
3 0 0 0
8 b
5 8 5 . 8
5 6 3
N o
D H L E x
p r e s s
I b e r i a
2 0 0 3
I n t e g r a t i o n o f
G u i p u z c o a n a ,
E u r o E x p r e s s ,
D a n z a s a n d D H L
n . a .
5 0 0 0
3 4 2 c
5 1 6 . 8
5 1 4 . 4
D e u t s c h e P o s t
( 1 0 0 % )
N a c e x
1 9 9 5
G r u p o B u r g a l
3 1 1
1 5 2 1
4 b
2 2 6
2 2 3
N o
C h r o n o e x p r e ´ s
1 9 8 3
J e t
S e r v i c e s
5 4
1 7 6 7
–
1 3 2 . 5
1 3 2 . 1
N o
N o t e s : T h
e l a t e s t d a t a a v a i l a b l e f r o m t h e c o m p a n i e s a r e c i t e d .
( a ) M i l l i o
n o f e u r o s ; ( b ) S u b c o n t r a c t e d ; ( c ) I t c o r r e s p o n d s t o t h e g l o b a l d i v i s i o n D H L
E x p r e s s .
S o u r c e : C
o m p i l e d f r o m d a t a p r o v i d e d b y S E U R
a n d D B K ,
‘ S e c t o r e s ’ ( 2 0 1 1 ) .
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activities, and (v) Spanish and European public postal operators that have acquired private
companies to expand their activity to the courier sector.18
In the first group DHL, the first international express carrier to enter in Spain, in 1979,
is an outstanding firm.19 DHL is also the biggest foreign company that operates in the
Spanish and Portuguese markets through its subsidiary DHL Express Iberia. Other
multinationals decided to purchase Spanish companies in order to enter this market: suchwas the case of UPS, which acquired Cuallado, as well as TNT, which bought the two
Spanish Unitransa and TG þ . Transportes Ochoa, which has recently ceased its activity,
is the most representative example in the quoted third type of firm: it was a traditional
Spanish freight carrier that extended its activity to become a courier. In the fourth
category, firms that were established to offer express delivery services, SEUR, MRW,
Nacex and Halcourier are the most important ones. All these firms adopted the franchise
structure in order to cover the entire Spanish territory. In recent years, a wide range of
small firms were established with this legal structure to enter certain express market
segments in which the entry barriers are low. Envialia, ASM, Zeleris, Mex or Redyser are
some examples. Although its turnover volume is not as high as the big express carriers,
they have achieved a prominent place in the Spanish market, so they are serious
competitors in particular business niches. Finally, the former public postal operator,
Correos Group, also has presence in the Spanish courier market. Correos entered the
courier sector by acquiring the French firm Chronopost, later renamed Chronoexpres.20
3. A historical approach to SEUR
SEUR is the oldest express carrier company in Spain: it was established in 1942 and, until
the late 1970s, it was the only one operating in the Spanish courier market.21 The arrival of
competition came in 1977 with MRW, another Spanish company. A few years afterwards,
the major global operators such as the European DHL and TNT or the American UPS andFedEx arrived in Spain. The long history of SEUR (the company was 70 years old in 2012)
can be summarised in three stages of asymmetrical length. These stages coincide roughly
Table 5. Types of businesses in the Spanish courier industries.
Business model Cases
Subsidiary of foreign company DHL (1979), Jet Services (1983)
Foreign multinationals that acquiredSpanish firms TNT (Unitransa, 1988; TGþ
, 2005),UPS (Cuallado, 1991), Mayne Nickless (Helguera, 1990)*
Spanish companies that evolvedfrom ordinary transport to courier
Ochoa (1980s)
Spanish companies that were bornexclusively to operate in courier
SEUR, Halcourier, MRW, Nacex
Public postal operators that acquiredprivate firms to enter in courier
Deutsche Post (Guipuzcoana, 1999),Correos (Chronoexpres, 50% in 1998 and the remaining50% in 2003), Correios de Portugal(Tourline Express, 2005), La Poste (Brokers Worldwide,1997; Chronopost; SEUR, 2004**)
Notes:*The acquired company is presented in brackets.**La Poste, through its subsidiary GeoPost, holds a 56.20% stake in SEUR.Source: Munuera Aleman and Rodrıguez Escudero, Estrategias, 529.
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with the ones we have set for the development of courier companies in the Western world:
(i) a difficult start until the end of the 1950s, (ii) a long period of growth and
diversification, accompanied by an intense professionalisation of the company, until the
end of the century, and (iii) the time of alliances, joint ventures and mergers of companies
during recent years. This stage involved the sale of 56.20% of SEUR to the French
operator GeoPost, a subsidiary of La Poste.
3.1 The difficult beginnings in post-war Spain
SEUR began operating in 1942, three years after the end of the Spanish civil war. The
country was facing one of its most difficult historical periods: the beginning of the
dictatorship of General Franco. The international economic isolation and Franco’s
protectionist policy extended the time to reach normality and plunged Spain into a period
of delay that did not help the creation of new businesses. In addition it should be recalled
that the term ‘courier’ did not exist in Spain, a country whose terrible communications and
endowment of infrastructures have been a historical problem for its economicdevelopment. The time of delivery of any goods was long in the 1940s and nobody
seemed to consider the need to shorten them.
Two young people without university education, training or resources launched SEUR.
They were Justo Yufera and Jorge Fernandez.22 The two partners began to deliver goods
between Barcelona and Madrid with minimum capital and a telephone as their only assets.
From the start, the two partners decided to share profits equally and to each keep the
ownership of their part of the business: the business was thus set up as two independently
owned companies operating in partnership. This idea started in their initial agreement to
divide profits equally and to keep business independence, and was maintained throughout
seven decades, as new members joined the network. It became a feature of corporateidentity and a rarity in the industry as most courier companies often distribute benefits
unequally, in favour of the city that sends a parcel. Parcels travelled from city to city by
train, and each of the partners, Yufera in Madrid and Fernandez in Barcelona, was in
charge of deliveries in their respective city.23 The business worked slowly for 20 years,
following the same slow rhythm of growth as the Spanish economy.
3.2 Growth, diversification and professionalisation
The change came in the early 1960s when the increasing openness and integration of Spain
into international markets led Spain to a quick take-off.24 Under the expansion of private
consumption, SEUR began to grow significantly. Among the first customers were
bookstores, car repair shops, banks and brokers, along with many businesses related to the
textile industry. For the customers, the new company offered two advantages: saving time,
and the opportunity to reduce inventories and storage costs. This historic time of growth
coincided with the arrival of Yufera’s son in law, Ramon Mayo, in the business.25 Ramon
Mayo gave a great boost to the company. He promoted the use of trucks instead of the
railway, and the construction of a network covering the whole territory.26
SEUR left railroad transport in the late 1970s: it was a rigid system, subject to
schedules and weight limitation. The trucks gave freedom to the company as it did not
have to depend on others to ensure quality. In 1978 SEUR began the first tests of courier
transport by road between Madrid and Barcelona. When the system was proved reliableenough it was implemented in all the lines. The freight trucks belonged to self-employees:
SEUR had no money or credit to buy them.
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The road transport system was the starting point to spread the network throughout
Spain. Within a few years new affiliates were created in all the Spanish provinces. As
Figure 2 shows, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s almost all of the network was set
up. These affiliates were born as independent family businesses. They were linked by ties
of trust, a strong sense of belonging to the company and the shared commitment to quality.
SEUR was also characterised by a certain lack of formality in management forms andsignificant improvisation in making decisions. While the volume of business permitted,
the discipline imposed by the founders and the high degree of trust between the partners
allowed the company to work largely through oral ‘gentlemen’s agreements’.
The move to the road and the building of the network brought a spectacular growth to
the business and forced some changes in the company management. From the mid-1980s
SEUR began an intensive task of professionalisation and legal reorganisation.27 In the
professionalisation field, the company began to employ external experts in all areas of
management. In the legal field, there were two significant events: the legal foundation of
SEUR Espana Inc., in 1984, and the transformation of the company into a franchise
system, in 1997. SEUR Espana Inc. was established as a company owned by all theaffiliates according to their turnover.28 It was set up to represent all the affiliates and to
assume all the functions that went beyond the geographical scope of each of them. In
particular, SEUR Espana Inc. took over the management of common services such as
accounting, advertising, insurance contracts, relationships with shared clients and legal
advice as well as tax and labour advice of the network. The new company also took care of
everything related to the SEUR brand. In 1984, the brand was already an asset of great
value to the Group and it became the property of SEUR ESPAN A Inc.29 The franchise
system was chosen as the most convenient way to give a legal framework to the
relationships among the network affiliates. Of course SEUR was and is a very atypical case
of franchising since franchisees are the owners and founders of the franchise company.
3.3 The arrival of GeoPost
The beginning of the twenty-first century brought profound changes for SEUR. The
company had spent several years seeking alliances abroad that would allow more growth
and international presence. Despite the efforts no significant results were achieved. The
failures in the different negotiations led to a significant exhaustion between the owners of
SEUR, and the idea of selling the business began to spread among many of them. The
prospect of achieving substantial profits by selling were an incentive for the owners of
SEUR: most had started with nothing and had faced long and hard working lives. Some
had no further chance of succession within the family and this situation fed the desire to
sell the company. For members who planned to stay, the entry of a large foreign partner
was a way to simplify the structure of SEUR and hence the possibility of expediting
decision-making in key areas such as investment in logistics and new technologies. From
the point of view of the economic situation, the beginning of 2000 seemed the right time to
achieve the sale. The first attempt to purchase SEUR was made by the investment
company Vista Capital, a company owned by the Bank of Santander and the Royal Bank
of Scotland.30 Despite the time spent on it, the purchase transaction of the company failed
in the spring of 2002.
Two reasons explain this failure: first, the complex corporate structure of SEUR that
complicated the examination of accounts and the question of fixing a price for each of thefranchises. On the other hand, the international economic situation worsened after the
Islamic terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. In this context, Vista Capital made an offer
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F i g u r e
2 . T h e b u i l d i n g o f S E U R n e t w o r k : c i t i e s a n d y e a r s . S o u r c e : C o m
p i l e d f r o m p e r s o n a l i n t e r v i e w s w i t h t h e o w n e r s .
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that SEUR did not accept, because it was a lower price than that offered before the 9/11
events. An operation that had been announced as the largest venture capital deal made so
far in Spain was thus frustrated.31 After the failed attempt to sell, SEUR’s owners made
some changes in the legal structure of the company, providing for other future purchase
operations. In particular they changed the name of the franchisor in 2001 from SEUR
Espana Inc. to SEUR Inc. and, above all, they modified the franchise agreement in 2003.The new franchise agreement strengthened the power of the franchisee and accentuated
the unusual structure of SEUR, in which the franchisee has tended to increase its
importance versus the franchisor.32
In 2003 there was another attempt to buy SEUR, this time led by the American
company Merrill Lynch. A year later came the final assault: GeoPost entry in the
shareholding of SEUR. GeoPost had tried to enter the Spanish market through a joint
venture with the Spanish public postal operator, Grupo Correos, which failed.33 In 2004
GeoPost joined SEUR as an international partner first, and then as owner by buying some
franchises.34 Among the most important franchises acquired was that of Madrid. The
founder of the business, Justo Yufera, left SEUR, although he was named HonoraryPresident of the company.
In recent years GeoPost has strengthened its position in the company to nearly 56.20%
of the property. The remaining 43.80% is still in the hands of the historical families that
began the business. Some of them have increased their percentage of ownership by buying
franchise partners. The current corporate structure can be seen in Figure 3.
4. A network-type business group in a late developed economy
The SEUR case study shows an efficient alternative to the large vertically integrated and
professionally managed corporation: the network business group.Why was SEUR established as a network-type business group? And, what advantages
and disadvantages did this form of organisation have?
4.1 Social and institutional context to foster network-type business groups
Powell has pointed out three conditions that encourage the formation of network forms
of organisation: (i) the demand for speed, (i) know how and (iii) trust.35 Powell focused
his attention on biotechnological industries, and thus he believed that networks have a
comparative advantage in coping with environments that place a premium on
innovation products and that network business groups are well-suited for highly skilled
labour force environments where participants possess a know-how that cannot easily
succumb to monopoly control or expropriation by the wealthiest bidder.36 The SEUR
case study shows that the theory about what external conditions may foster network
business organisations also fits well into less technologically intensive industries.
Powell’s theory applies well to the development of courier services in late developed
economies like Spain.
On the one hand, network forms may fit businesses with low entry barriers because a
network form of organisation offers a way to link competitors and avoid excessive
competition at the beginning of a business when the market is growing very fast and it is
difficult for only one of the competitors to monopolise. On the other hand, network-type
business groups offer a real possibility of growth with low investment or risks. And this isespecially interesting for entrepreneurs with not many possibilities for credit and
investment: none of the families that began the SEUR adventure could have built the
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F i g u r e 3 . C o r p o r a t e s t r u c t u r e o
f S E U R ,
2 0 1 3 . N o t e s :
1
F r a n c h i s e
s o w n e d b y h i s t o r i c a l p a r t n e r s , t h a t i s , f a m i l y - c o n t r o l l e d fi r m s t h a t f
o u n d e d
S E U R i n t h e i r p r o v i n c e s .
2
B a r c
e l o n a h a s m o r e p a r t n e r s i n i t s s h a
r e h o l d i n g a p a r t f r o m S E U R S A a n d S E U R G e o P o s t S L .
S o u r c e : C o
m p i l e d
f r o m d a t a p r o v i d e d b y S E U R .
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network alone. Finally, in Powell’s explanation, trust is related to the institutional and
social contexts, which he believed were under-analysed factors that should explain
network forms of businesses organisation. According to Powell, certain kinds of
institutional contexts, with particular combinations of legal, political or economic factors,
are ready supporters of network forms, and certain social contexts may encourage
cooperation, especially when the participants of a business have a common backgroundthat makes it easy to sustain network-type arrangements. This idea helps explain
the history of SEUR. Recent studies on business groups dealt with this problem with the
creation of 15 country-specific patterns of business groups.37 Most of them examine the
degree to which political, economic and socio-cultural factors influence business groups.
As the network type is not deeply examined in these studies, and Spain is not a country
included among the analysed cases, our study contributes to this line of research with new
empirical evidence.
What kind of political and economic conditions encourage or support network
firms? The environment which gave birth to SEUR seemed perfect ground for the
network form of organisation: a closed market, with legal protection, in a latedeveloped economy. Until 1987 road transport in Spain was ruled by a law enacted in
1947.38 This law was extremely protectionist and hindered the entry of foreign firms
into the domestic market. It explains the freedom of SEUR to operate for years without
overseas competition. As it was designed to encouraged rail transport, the law was not
particularly helpful for road transport, but was enough to protect domestic courier
companies. SEUR thus had legal protection in the late 1980s when the network was
being formed and during the company’s taking off. In 1987, a new Act, called LOTT,
provided a starting point in the courier market. The LOTT Act removed the
subordination of road transport to railway and made the market more flexible.39 From
this moment onwards SEUR was firmly settled in Spain and Portugal and could moreeasily cope with competition.
If the legal and political framework helps us to understand the first stage of growth of
SEUR, the Spanish economic situation offers an additional explanation. Why a network?
The founders of SEUR had an original business idea, but no money or credit. In a country
burdened by the lack of credit, network financing was an effective way to reduce costs by
sharing and dividing expenses between the partners.
The social context adds further reasons to understand the functionality of the network-
type form of business group. Following Powell, ‘the more homogeneous the group, the
greater the trust, hence the easier it is to sustain network-like arrangements’.40 At the same
time, when repeated trading occurs, there is limited need for hierarchical oversight
because the desire for continued participation discourages opportunism. This was SEUR
exactly: a homogeneous group in which every partner depended on the others.
Homogeneity was the result of the origins of the partners. There were three types of
them: founder’s family, founder’s former employees and founder’s friends. Relatives,
employees and friends started their own family business in the area of the country
entrusted to them. These partners, joined by family and friendship ties, had two other
characteristics in common: they were relatively young and had no experience in the
transport sector. In fact, more than half of the members were under 30. This is not
irrelevant. The beginnings of the company were hard: 12-hour workdays and nights
travelling on rough roads were part of everyday life. Only young members could deal
with these working conditions. Their academic background was limited: none of themhad finished a degree and only a few had gone to university, always for a short while.
Many did not even have elementary schooling. Their work history was varied but
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mostly far from the transport sector: with the exception of some truck drivers, the
members of the network were painters, electricians, housewives, etc. Necessity made
ties and trust grew between partners: several members had been unemployed and most
of them risked their small savings to start the business. SEUR was a chance of survival.
Operation through verbal agreements evidenced the strength of these ties. And there
was no necessity for oversight as the daily business was a permanent supervision.When a partner did not fulfil his duties the network noticed immediately and the
partner was expelled.
4.2 Advantages and disadvantages of a network-type business group in the courier
market
There are four remarkable advantages to the network-type business group adopted by
SEUR. First, the network system favoured proximity to customers. Each partner lived in
his local market and knew it perfectly. This closeness made it easy to design routes of
distribution or marketing strategies. The owner heard of any incident in real time andcould solve it quickly and efficiently.
Secondly, the close ties between partners facilitated the learning process. Before
starting the business in a city, new members used to spend several days alongside some of
the veterans. In a usually short training, the new members learned the key aspects of the
business. The main lesson was the importance of speed, i.e. the importance of providing
quality service. Every owner knew that SEUR did not sell just transport but also time. That
was a big difference because time is an intangible of immeasurable value. Another
important lesson was that SEUR could transport any item. In Spain, transport companies
discriminated against certain goods. SEUR instead moved it all: slot machines, donkeys
and even coffins. The learning process also included marketing skills and all those relatedto managing the business. This possibility of learning through partners highlights the role
of social relations in learning.41
Thirdly, the partners developed a real ‘family spirit’ which led them to collaborate and
transfer any innovation to the network. The solidarity between partners was not only to
share advances in computer systems, conveyer belts or vehicles, but to lend money or
logistical support when a member needed it.
Fourthly, the atypical franchise system adopted by SEUR kept alive the multi-family
nature of this firm and it served to solve several problems related to franchising.42 In fact,
the case of SEUR shows an efficient solution to avoid free-riding in franchise chains.43
SEUR’s franchisees are the owners of the franchisor company, that is SEUR Inc., and the
owners of the brand, so that all of them have tried to protect the integrity of their brand
name, hence opportunism is mitigated. Moreover, the high level of interaction between
partners along with the family nature of the business enabled every innovation and all
knowledge and business practices to be shared among the entire network, avoiding the risk
of franchisees being more involved in the day-to-day work than attending training
sessions.44
On the side of disadvantages, all the problems arising from a decentralised system
should be noted. The multi-family network nature of SEUR has been a valuable asset to
the viability of the company. However, it has been a source of instability. SEUR is a
reverse franchise. The franchisees have more negotiating power within the network
because they are the owners of the franchisor company. The greater importance of franchisees versus the franchisor has slowed decision-making. It is not easy for 80 owners
to reach agreement. This problem has particularly affected key strategic decisions such as
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the technological modernisation of the company and its incorporation into the
international market. The owners, immersed in day-to-day business, did not always
maintain an overall strategic vision. And the franchisor executives did not always have
enough operational capacity to impose strategic decisions.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this problem was their slowness in making the
decision to internationalise, despite being one of the pioneers in the industry.Undoubtedly, by the time that SEUR decided to access the international market, entry
barriers imposed by the first movers were very difficult to overcome: SEUR could not
compete either in cost or capacity with major couriers in the global market. The company
did not panic and gave a good example of its flexibility in adapting its strategy and
business model to the times.
Indeed, the decision to settle and strengthen its presence in the Spanish market was not
at all misguided. SEUR is, in comparative perspective, smaller than its international
competitors, and its international role is obviously less. This has been partly the result of
political and economic circumstances that differ greatly from those experienced by the big
couriers. While leaders conquered new markets in Europe and North America, SEURadapted to the new challenges brought with the increasing openness of the Spanish
economy and its incorporation into the European market. The introduction of competition
in the local market made SEUR focus on defending its market share rather than achieving
new international positions where leaders already enjoyed a solid position. In this way,
while other Spanish companies were bought by foreign competition, SEUR was able to
maintain its local business and then adapt to historical change.
As most scholars recognise, economic maturity and the global shift since the 1980s
towards liberalised markets have led to the demise of groups or to their adaptation by
simplifying their ownership networks and professionalising their board and executive
teams.
45
The involvement of GeoPost in SEUR has achieved this simplification becausethe network has been greatly reduced. The French partner has provided capital for
modernisation, as well as experience and international connections. With this support,
SEUR has established itself as a leading courier company.
In summary, the history of SEUR highlights the contribution of family-controlled
business groups to the economic development of Spain, in strategic sectors relatively
unknown so far, like courier services. In some institutional and market environments, like
the ones we have described for Spain in the last seven decades, this type of business group
may represent an efficient alternative to the large vertically integrated corporation.
Possibly the dynamism of the national market of courier services, despite great changes in
the institutional rules of the game (in dictatorship, and in democracy), and the high level of
trust and loyalty of the families involved in linking fragmented markets in the courier
services sector may help explain the endurance of an old business group type of
organisation in a modern economic activity.
Acknowledgements
This work stems from research funded by the company SEUR. We thank SEUR, which permitted theuse of the information contained in this paper. We especially thank Carmen Queipo de Llano(Director of Communications Department), Laura Gonzalvo (External Communications Manager)and Manuel Valle (President of SEUR at the time of the research) for all their support. We also thank
IESE Business School and its members: Professor Josep Ta`pies (Chair of Family-Owned Business)and Joaquın Molina (Director of Corporate Development) for their help and advice. We finally thank
Antonio Garrigues Walker who has enriched our view of SEUR with his comments. DBK andA.T. Kearney gave us valuable advice and some interesting data from their own research work.
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Notes
1. E.g. Leff , “Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship”; Guillen, “Business Groups inEmerging Economies”; Kock and Guillen, “Strategy and Structure”; Valdaliso, “GruposEmpresariales, marco institucional”; Barbero and Jacob, Nueva historia empresas en Ame rica;Colpan, Hikino, and Lincoln, Oxford Handbook of Business Groups.
2. Valdaliso, Familia Aznar y sus negocios; Dıaz Morlan, Los Ybarra; Fernandez Perez, Siglo ymedio de trefilerı a; San Roman, Ildefonso Fierro.3. Tapies, Empresa familiar , 11.4. They identify two basic types of business groups: the network type in which the constituent
companies adopt the behavioural principle of alliance and the hierarchy type which areorganised by the authority. Colpan and Hikino, “Foundations of Business Groups,” 18–19.
5. Granovetter and Swedberg, Sociology of Economic Life; Granovetter, “Coase Revisited”;Casson, “Cultural Determinants of Economic Performance”; Casson, “Economics of theFamily Firm.”
6. Fernandez Perez and Rose highlight the role of social networks and their contribution to thesuccess of family business. Other papers that followed Granovetter and Casson footprints inbusiness history are Rose, “Networks, Values and Business”; Colli and Rose, “Families andFirms”; Colli, Fernandez Perez, and Rose, “National Determinants of Family Firm”; Fernandez
Perez and Puig, “Knowledge and Training”; Fernandez Perez and Rose, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Networks.
7. Powell, “Neither Market nor Hierarchy.”8. Since the late 1980s, the distinction between courier and express activities began to disappear.
The former couriers were companies providing fast and reliable delivery services, usuallyoriented to international markets. They used to employ commercial air routes. Meanwhile,national express companies organised fleets of trucks and small aircraft without relying onscheduled air routes, so they were able to carry large items on an urgent basis but supportinghigh fixed costs. Both activities, courier and express, have in common the provision of fasterand more reliable transport services than the ones provided by traditional postal operators.According to the need to respond to new demands, transportation techniques were rapidlyimproved and couriers and express national companies began to compete in the same global
delivery market: couriers started operating with owned fleets and express carriers began to usecourier services where traffic was insufficient to charter their own aircraft (Campbell, Rise of Global Delivery Services). Throughout this article, we will take both courier and expressservices as parts of the same express delivery market.
9. Oxford Economics, “Economy Impact of Express Carriers.” This is the last report published byOxford Economics, referring to the 2010 economic year.
10. United Parcel Services (UPS) was founded in 1907 in Seattle and FedEx in 1971, in Little Rock (Arkansas).
11. Deutsche Post-DHL begins its history with German operator Deutsche Bundespost and theAmerican company DHL established in San Francisco in 1969. Deutsche Bundespost wasprivatised between 1989 and 1995 and changed its name to Deutsche Post. In 1998, DeutschePost bought 51% shares of DHL. The remaining 49% was acquired in 2002. Deutsche Post-
DHL was beyond the control of state on 14 June 2005 when the financial institution KfWBankengruppe bought shares in this company valued at e2 million. DHL Express is the divisionresponsible for courier. Savignano, Multiple Identities of an Enployer , 38–40. TNT, which wasestablished in 1946, also belongs to this group of companies. In 1996 TNT was acquired by theDutch national company which had been privatised in 1986 and renamed PTT Nederland and,since 1994, Royal PTT Nederland (KPN). In 1998, the postal division of the company(including TNT) have demerged from KPN and are listed separately on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange as TPG (TNT Post Group). In 2005 TPG renamed itself to TNT and, one year later,sold its logistics division to Appolo Management. Since then, TNT has focused its business incourier and postal activities. In 2011, it was decided to separate both divisions. This transactionimplied the creation of a new express carrier, TNT Express.
12. The American operator UPS announced the acquisition of TNT Express, the express carriersubsidiary of the Dutch group, in March 2012. Recently, this acquisition failed. In January
2013 the European Commission announced that it was working towards proposing aprohibition decision, pointing out that the merger would mean a threat to competition in severalEuropean markets.
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13. Tucker, Fundamentos de Economı a, 39.14. Universal Postal Union, Acquisitions, Mergers and Strategic Alliances.15. A.T. Kearney, “Estudio del Mercado de Transporte.”16. http://www.ine.es.17. In 2010, the five top companies in the business owned a joint market share of 44.3% and the 10
top ones 63.2%.
18. Munuera Aleman and Rodrıguez Escudero made a first classification that we have used andmodified. Munuera Aleman and Rodrıguez Escudero, Estrategias de marketing, 529.
19. DHL Express Iberia, subsidiary of the German group, appeared from the integration of theSpanish carriers Danzas and Guipuzcoana.
20. Correos Group, was formed after the merger of the former Correos with its subsidiariesChonoexpres, Correos Telecom and Nexea. Bahamonde, Martınez, and Otero, El Palacio deComunicaciones.
21. Tapies, San Roman, and Gil, SEUR. 70 An os de Entrega, 17–39.22. Justo Yufera was born in Barcelona in 1920. His family moved to France when he was a child.
He lived much of his youth between France, Cameroon and Guinea. Jorge Fernandez was alsoborn in Barcelona. Fernandez also belonged to a family without financial resources. JorgeFernandez left SEUR in 1985. Yufera remains as Honorary President of SEUR. Interview with
Justo Yufera Cerdan, SEUR’s founder (October 28, 2010); “Al habla con Jorge Fernandez,”14; “Al habla con Justo Yufera,” 14.
23. “Al habla con Jorge Fernandez,” 14–15.24. From 1959 to 1975 Spain experienced the most intense and uninterrupted growth in its history.
Gross domestic product increased in real terms at an annual rate above 7%. Serrano Sanz andPardos Martınez, “Anos de Crecimiento del Franquismo,” 369.
25. Interview with Ramon Mayo, ex Vice-President of SEUR, President of SEUR Foundation andowner of Alicante franchise (January 21, 2010).
26. Several partners have confirmed the role of Mayo. Interview with Justo Yufera, SEUR’sfounder (October 28, 2010); Interview with Jose Fuentes, former owner of Bilbao franchise(March 21, 2011); interview with Manuel Valle, ex-president of SEUR (May 2011); interviewwith Julian Recuenco, Vice President of Quality and Operations of SEUR (February 11, 2011).
27. Interview with Fernando Rodrıguez Sousa, Ex-CEO of SEUR (February 15, 2011).28. SEUR Espana Inc. was formally constituted on December 21, 1984. The headquarters were inMadrid. SEUR Organization Statutes (1987).
29. Formerly, the brand belonged to the founder Justo Yufera.30. Interview with Carlos Sanza, director of the Corporate Legal Advice Department of SEUR
(March 3, 2011); Interview with Daniel Fernandez de Lis, former director of the CorporateLegal Advice Department of SEUR (April 14, 2011).
31. Interview with Fernando Rodrıguez Sousa, Ex-CEO of SEUR (February 15, 2011). TheSpanish press published the news on April 25, 2002. It was published in Expansio n, Cinco
Dı as, and in national newspapers such as ABC, La Vanguardia and El Paı s.32. Interview with Carlos Sanza, director of the Corporate Legal Advice Department of SEUR
(March 3, 2011); interview with Daniel Fernandez de Lis, director of the Corporate LegalAdvice Department of SEUR (April 14, 2011); “Franchise Agreement (2003)” issued by the
Corporate Legal Advice Department.33. Interview with Yves Delmas, President of SEUR (February 25, 2011).34. The purchase of the company is covered in detail in the Proceedings of the Annual General
Meeting and in the Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Company that we have consulted.35. Powell, “Neither Market nor Hierarchy,” 323–7.36. Powell, “Learning from Collaboration,” and Powell et al., “Network Dynamics and Field
Evolution.”37. The Oxford Handbook of Business Groups includes case studies from Japan, Taiwan, South
Korea, China, Thailand, Singapore, India, Argentine, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Israel, Turkey,Russia and South Africa.
38. Law 27/12/1947, BOE, December, 28.39. Law 16/1.987, July 30, BOE July 31.
40. Powell, “Neither Market nor Hierarchy,” 326.41. Cope, “Toward a Dynamic Learning”; Hamilton, “Entrepreneurial Learning in Family
Business”; Taylor and Thorpe “Entrepreneurial Learning.”
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42. There is an extensive literature explaining why a firm uses franchising as an entrepreneurialstrategy rather than company ownership and the consequences of these decisions. From theagency theory see Brickley and Dark , “The Choice of Organizational Form”; Caves andMurphy, “Franchising”; Fama and Jensen, “Separation of Ownership and Control”; Jensenand Meckling, “Theory of the Firm”; Lafontaine “Agency Theory and Franchising”; Combsand Ketchen, “Why do Firms use Franchising?”; Lafontaine and Slade, “Vertical
Integration and Firm Boundaries.” Oxenfeldt and Kelly, and Carney and Gedajlovic explainfranchising decisions from the resource scarcity perspective. Oxenfeldt and Kelly,“Successful Franchise Systems”; Carney and Gedajlovic, “Vertical Integration in FranchiseSystems.”
43. The more valuable the brand name, the greater the risk of opportunistic franchisees. Norton,“Franchising, Brand Name Capital”; Michael, “Effect of Organizational Form.”
44. Knowledge is an important asset in the franchising context and its learning process requires aninvestment of time by franchisees not always willing. Specifically, tacit knowledge is time-consuming and requires observation, demonstration and experience. Hansen, “The Search-Transfer Problem”; Hansen, “Knowledge Networks”; Von Hippel, “Sticky Information”;Zander and Kogut, “Knowledge and Speed of Transfer.”
45. Colpan, Hikino, and Lincoln, Oxford Handbook of Business Groups, 7.
Notes on contributors
Elena San Roman is assistant professor of Economic History at Universidad Complutense deMadrid, Spain.
Paloma Fernandez Perez is assistant professor of Economic History at Universitat de Barcelona,Spain.
Agueda Gil Lopez is PhD student in Economics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
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