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The trajectories of internationalisation followed by family firms can be viewed from several theoretical approaches: phases and models of the internationalisation process; international entrepreneurship, the sociological perspective and family business theory. A historical perspective of internationalised family firms, allowing for the integration of the abovementioned approaches, is useful to obtain a deep understanding of the internationalisation process of different sectors and of different countries. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the facilitating and restricting factors during the internationalisation path of family firms, whilst considering the influence in their competitive advantages, of ownership structure, management attitudes and other intangible assets, as well as external factors to the firms, like location. The research involved a long run analysis (of more than one century) of two firms which operate in the cork business in Spain and Portugal: Mundet & C.ª, Lda and Corticeira Amorim. One of these companies - Mundet - was closed down in the 1980s and the other – Corticeira Amorim – became, and still is, the leading firm worldwide in the cork industry. A detailed comparison of these two histories - one of failure, and the other of success - permits an accurate identification of the determinants of successful internationalisation. In fact, this comparison is useful for understanding several characteristics of both firms, some of which are similar and others which are different, allowing to test several hypotheses within the context of the theoretical approach of the internationalisation of family firms. This methodological option can be justify by several aspects. Firstly, both are family firms operating in the same business and both were concentrated on the foreign market since their conception. Secondly, both their histories encompass most of the 20th Century and both faced similar national and international constraints, which were overcome, as they both ended up becoming the leading firms in the cork business, although at different periods of time. Thirdly, their choices of location were different and, although in both cases they benefitted from agglomeration forces during certain phases of the business, location was an important determinant of the opposing destinies of these two emblematic cork family firms from Iberia.

En la segunda mitad del siglo XX, la industria corchera española perdió su posición hegemónica en el mercado mundial de las manufacturas corcheras en beneficio de la portuguesa. En la investigación iniciada pretendemos demostrar que una de las claves de la consolidación del liderazgo portugués en este negocio radica en la formación y desarrollo del distrito industrial corchero de Aveiro en el norte de Portugal, en el que se plasmó la expansión de la industria lusa del tapón de corcho, y con ella, la decisiva orientación de la nación hacia la transformación del corcho natural, en detrimento de su tradicional vocación preparadora. Se argumenta que la legislación reguladora de la inversión privada en Portugal (el llamado Condicionamento Industrial) fue tolerante con la apertura de pequeños establecimientos "caseros" en el norte del país, siendo este hecho un refuerzo determinante de la capacidad competitiva de la industria taponera aveirense (y portuguesa) en el mercado mundial. A esta intervención estatal se unió la regulación de los salarios de la industria corchera, que estableció un diferencial salarial favorable al norte frente al resto del país. Asimismo, se pone de manifiesto la participación de una gran empresa (Amorim&Irmãos) en la formación y desarrollo de este distrito industrial, la cual acabó por convertirse en la primera a nivel mundial en el sector. During the second half of the twentieth century, the Spanish cork industry lost its hegemonic position to Portugal in the world market of manufactured cork. In this work we intend to demonstrate that one of the most important explanations for the consolidation of Portuguese leadership in the cork business lies in the formation and development of the industrial cork district of Aveiro (Santa Maria da Feira) in the north of Portugal. It was there that the growth of the Portuguese cork stopper industry took place and with this, the decisive national shift in orientation towards the manufacture of natural cork, substituting the traditional Portuguese trade in planks. We argue that the legislation that established control of industrial investment in Portugal - the so-called Industrial Conditioning (Condicionamento Industrial) - did not restrict the opening of small cottage industries in the north, thus reinforcing the competitiveness of Aveiro in the world stopper trade. Another measure of major importance was the wage regulation covering this industry, which was responsible for the favorable wage differential for the north in comparison with the south and the centre of the country. Finally, we highlight the role played by a big company (Amorim&Irmãos) in the formation and development of this industrial district. This company became a leading firm in the sector world-wide.

A coincidência entre a fase de arranque do crescimento económico moderno em Portugal, na década de 50, e um grande número de medidas político-legislativas do Estado Novo aplicadas ao sub-sector florestal durante os anos 30 e 40, levanta a questão de saber até que ponto estas últimas teriam ou não objectivos estruturantes, isto é, se procurariam romper e corrigir os principais factores bloqueadores da modernização da agricultura portuguesa - como sejam a fraca mecanização, uma propriedade agrícola mal estruturada e o incorrecto aproveitamento dos solos - e, simultaneamente, criar recursos estratégicos para um processo de industrialização. Face ao exposto, pretende-se neste texto fazer uma análise preliminar de uma das medidas do Estado Novo no âmbito das florestas, por ventura a fundamental, o Plano de Povoamento Florestal (1938-68), e avaliar de que forma este contribuiu para a evolução dos rendimentos e produtividade agrícolas, abrindo caminho para o crescimento económico moderno em Portugal. The coincidence between the take-off of the Portuguese economy in the 1950s and a great deal of political and legislative measures taken by the Estado Novo and applied on the sector of forest during the 1930s and the 1940s, brings up the question of knowing until what point those measures had or had not structural aims. That is, if this last search to break up and correct the main factors that blocked the agricultural modernization - such as weak mechanization, the inedaquate size of farms, the wrong use of the soils - and create the strategic resources for the industrialization of the country. This paper aims at making a preliminary analysis of the most important agricultural policy measures of the Estado Novo, the 'Piano de Povoamento Florestal' (1930-68), and evaluate its contribution for the evolution of productivity and product in the agricultural sector, allowing Portuguese modern economic growth.