Intangible assets in the internationalization of Spanish wineries: Directive and compared perception between family and non family businesses

Abstract

Purpose: To determine which of the intangible resources possessed by companies from the Spanish viticultural sector can serve as a source of competitive advantage in the development of their international strategies. Exploratory study of the impact of the different intangible resources possessed by Spanish wineries on the development of their international strategies: differences dependending on the family-owned or non family-owned character of the viticultural companies in question.

Design/methodology/approach: Empirical quantitative study of descriptive nature basically using the analysis of information gathered from surveys carried out with managers in Spanish wineries, family and non-family, representative of the sector in the national context.

Findings: Companies from the Spanish viticultural sector show an intangible resource endowment, as a source of competitive advantage in the development of their international strategies. This endowment varies depending on the resources analyzed (technological, human, organizational and relational resources) and, in some aspects, does vary depending whether the firm is family-owned or not.

Research limitations: We have focused our study in only one economic sector completely. The same analysis or study in other industrial sectors would provide different results from those achieved in this study.

Practical implications: The main challenges facing Spanish wineries in achieving success are emphasized taking into consideration their intangible resource endowment, in order to reinforce their competitive position in international markets.

Social implications: This study points out the way that different public and private organizations and institutions of the viticultural sector could help wineries to overcome the challenges that have been set out in this study. Just as it directs which different policies and how they should be applied to the intangible resources in the viticultural sector.

Originality/value: Although there is numerous data and information about the International trade of the Spanish viticultural sector, no previous study has focused on the analysis of these companies’ intangible resources as a source of competitive advantage in the development of their international strategies. Furthermore, none of these previous studies have taken into account whether the winery is family-owned or not. It is a first piece of work that leads the foundations about the effective resource endowment of Spanish family wineries.