19 July 2023
San Sebastian Campus
The University of Deusto, within the framework of the DESUGI project, has been working for some time on the role of family businesses and SMEs in Gipuzkoa to create sustainable wealth in the territory. An innovative internship programme, a doctoral thesis awarded by the Basque Government, different forms of recognition of this type of businesses and various studies on the situation and the importance of continuity and anchoring are some examples of the results of this research, which has just received the Deusto Research Social Impact label for its positive impact and social transformation.
Researchers Cristina Aragón and Cristina Iturrioz lead this programme that seeks to promote collaboration to maintain the activity and decision-making power of businesses in the territory by promoting networking and its social impact. They do so by fostering employability, focusing the generation and transfer of knowledge on the companies in our territory, particularly family SMEs, and promoting intersectoral collaboration in research and transfer.
DESUGI's first steps date back to 2017 when Deusto Business School, the Antonio Aranzábal Foundation and the Basque Family Business Association (AEFAME) carried out a study on industrial SMEs in Gipuzkoa. This study, financed by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, pointed out that 82% of industrial SMEs in Gipuzkoa form part of the value chains that operate in the territory, contributing to its economic and social dynamism, which makes it a priority to ensure their anchoring and improve the succession process. The study helped to identify the profiles that were at risk of sale, relocation and closure of industrial SMEs in Gipuzkoa, and proposed possible strategies to be developed to prevent the disappearance and dissociation of these companies from the territory.
This study served as the basis for a doctoral thesis promoted through the Deusto Family Business Chair in collaboration with the Basque Government and the Basque Family Business Association AEFAME. The work developed between 2017 and 2021 identifies the conditions that promote the continuity and anchoring of family businesses, as well as the relevance of attracting investment and talent, the recognition of family activity in territorial well-being and intergenerational transmission. In fact, this thesis, defended by Paula Martínez Sanchis, won the Alberto Alberdi Prize, in its first year, for being the best research work related to the Basque economy.
Both DESUGI and the thesis aim to make economic and social actors and public administrations aware of the important role they can play in the processes to achieve the anchoring and growth of these companies in the territory and, therefore, the maintenance of welfare in it.
As a result of these studies, it has been found that one of the factors that the territory can use to anchor family businesses in the territory is to recognise the work that family businesses have done over the years to launch and consolidate business projects, facing different crises and cycles. This research area, which has been supported since 2013 by the Antonio Aranzábal Foundation and the Deusto Business School with the Family Business and Family Business Cases Collection, has materialised in a publication produced in 2021, which brings together 12 family business cases in Gipuzkoa in which first-hand experiences of entrepreneurial families are collected. This collection is also available to the general public on the Foundation's website in three languages (Spanish, Basque and English).
Another important factor in supporting the establishment of SMEs is to help them find and retain talent, because if family businesses are not cared for and the commitment of business families is not valued, there is a risk of losing a fundamental part of Gipuzkoa's business fabric. Hence the launch in 2022, between Rural Kutxa, the Antonio Aranzábal Foundation and Deusto Business School, of the Family Business and Talent Internship Programme (PREFYT), whose aim is to connect young talent with family businesses in Gipuzkoa. The aim is to retain talent at an early stage, incorporating it into the strategic projects of family businesses in the region, thus preventing these highly trained people from ignoring attractive opportunities in our environment by ignoring them. In its first two years, 18 students and 13 companies participated with a very high level of satisfaction.
In this regard, this programme benefits three groups: the young and educated group, facilitating their participation in interesting projects so that they can get to know and be known by well-established companies in the region; the well-established, competitive and dynamic family businesses, which, as well as making themselves known, gain visibility among young university students in the region; thus, Gipuzkoa as a whole also gains, as it allows our region to retain both well-established business projects and talent in the region to prevent the loss of qualified youth and promote business projects. It should not be forgotten that the well-being and progress of society is to a large extent linked to the competitiveness of its businesses. In fact, what is the point of investing in the training of our youth, if this capital is not retained in the territory at the end of their studies?
More recently, in 2023, the researchers are collaborating with the Basque Institute of Competitiveness-Orkestra, in reflection processes on anchoring that are being developed in public institutions to see how anchoring policies can be strengthened.
