Changing big business in Italy and Spain, 1973-2003; strategic responses to a new context

Drawing on a new database, this article deals with the transformation of ownership, strategies and structures of the top 50 Italian and Spanish business groups and with the relationships between these three dimensions in the period extending from the mid-1970s to 2003. Despite the deep changes in the macroeconomic framework during the period considered, the ownership and organisational structures of big business present relevant continuities in both countries. However, the database individuates a metamorphosis in the diversification and internationalisation patterns in both nations. Among the many relevant factors in the interpretation of this trend, the impact of the process of European integration and the high level of turbulence which characterised the largest companies during this period are not negligible.