Canary Islands family businesses are the second most competitive in Spain - La Provincia

The Spanish family business has several challenges ahead. Along with that of continuity - less than half of these businesses survive the first generation - it stands out that of growing. Gaining size, acquiring muscle, means advancing in competitiveness and, therefore, an unavoidable requirement to stay in the market. The Canary Islands are no exception in this regard, since most of their family businesses are small, which makes them more vulnerable. However, the Archipelago leads the vast majority of autonomous communities in this regard.

The Valencian Institute of Economic Research (IVIE) has studied the level of competitiveness of Spanish companies controlled by families, classifying them into four groups: superior, solid, modest and fragile. The first two correspond to those that have a medium or large size.

Only behind Madrid

In the Canary Islands, those of both categories represent 17.3% of the total - 15.6% solid and 1.7% higher - only below Madrid, where they represent 17.9%. Behind the Islands is Murcia, a region in which the most competitive firms are 15.7% of those of family capital. On the other end are Cantabria and the Basque Country, with 10.2% and 10%, respectively.

The Observatory of Government, Strategy and Business Competitiveness of the IVIE -directed to analyze the situation of the Valencian Community but that incorporates data of all the autonomies- recalls that the average size of the companies is "a factor commonly associated" with their competitiveness and their greater contribution to employment and the creation of added value.

The Canary Islands comply with this rule: companies classified as superiors contribute 44.7% of jobs within the global family business - a figure that only exceeds the Valencian Community, with 52.7% -, while the classified as solid, they generate 26.5% - the seventh highest record in the country, after those in Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Galicia, Asturias, Catalonia and Castile and León.

In addition, both categories - superior and solid - create 82% of the added value provided by family businesses in the Islands, the second highest proportion of the entire regional map after the Balearic Islands (83%).

But the dimensions of the company are not the only element that explains its level of competitiveness. The ownership structure and the governance system of the firms also act as factors linked to their possibilities of continuity and growth. It is in these aspects where Canary family businesses have their weak point.

Thus, the Archipelago is the region with the lowest proportion of medium and large family businesses - solid and superior - that have two or more shareholders, only 59.1%, more than thirteen points below La Rioja, the community that, With 72.8%, it has the leadership in this aspect. The same goes for small businesses - modest and fragile - of which only 54.6% have the capital in the hands of more than one person, again a long way from La Rioja, where the percentage of family businesses with a most dispersed property reaches 74.4%.

Regarding government systems, the family business is characterized by the limited use of collective bodies. Only 32.7% of those of medium and large size in the Canary Islands have a board of directors, the smallest proportion of the country, lower by more than 17 points than in Navarra, the community in which the collective government is most frequent of this type of entities.

In the case of the smallest, only 27.9% have a board of directors, a percentage that only exceeds that of the Valencian Community (26.6%) and is almost 16 points below the records of Castilla and Leon.

The Valencian Institute of Economic Research clarifies that "the figure of the sole administrator does not indicate that the company is necessarily worse governed", but emphasizes that "these good practices facilitate the processes of succession, the durability of business models and the adoption of perspectives more open. "