State, firms and technology. The rise of multinational telecommunications companies: ITT and the Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana, 1924-1945

Ángel Calvo

Business History, 2008, vol. 50, issue 4, 455-473

Abstract: This article addresses a major topic in business history: the strategies used by multinational telecommunications companies to establish themselves on the world stage. It seeks to explore two interconnected issues: how a new entrant-ITT-used the immature market of Spain in its strategy for expansion, and how Spanish national institutions and government regulation influenced this process. With the backing of the US banks and government, ITT created a Spanish firm-the Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana-in 1924 to keep European competitors at bay and to win a licence to modernise and operate the telephone system in a backward country. The Spanish government granted ITT a monopoly concession, which remained unaltered for 20 years in spite of political changes. This was the first step in ITT's conquest of the world market and in its conversion into a multinational. Company strategy, government institutions and technological innovation played a crucial role in ITT's implantation on a worldwide scale.

Keywords: ITT; Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana; Spanish telephone; multinationals; telephone firms; technological transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1080/00076790802106570

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