ARTICLE
Bricolage and Innovation in the Emergence and
Development of the Spanish Tourism Industry
Jorge Hernández-Barahona
Elena San Román
Águeda Gil-López
Following the seminal work of Lévi-Strauss, developed by Baker and Nelson and Duymedjian
and Rüling, this paper analyzes the role that entrepreneurial bricolage played as an innovation
tool in the origins and growth of four important Spanish tourism companies: Meliá, Barceló,
Iberostar, and Riu. Their development has been deeply embedded in the island of Majorca
(Spain), whose historical market conditions shaped and drove the companies’ bricolage actions.
Entrepreneurial bricolage has generally been studied from a short-term perspective; however,
this work adopts a dynamic approach that, instead of focusing on the concept of bricolage, aims
to explain its evolution over time. To this end, four historical and qualitative case studies are
used. The main contribution made by this paper is that the four companies did not limit their
bricolage actions to contexts of scarcity but made this type of entrepreneurship a regular
mechanism in their business practices, as the island’s tourism context thrived. However, the
resulting innovations, as well as their main drivers, did indeed change over time.
Keywords: entrepreneurial bricolage, innovation, tourism, Balearic Islands (Spain)
Introduction
Spain’s economic growth between 1950 and 1973 was accompanied by considerable struc-
tural change.
1
In 1950, almost half of the Spanish working population was still agrarian,
Published online July 26, 2022
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1. For information on the Spanish economy during the twentieth century, the following readings are
recommended: Prados de la Escosura, Progreso económico; Tortella, Nuñez, and Alianza Editorial, España
Contemporánea; Domínguez Ortiz, Tres milenios.
Enterprise & Society (2023), 24: 4, 1119–1161
doi:10.1017/eso.2022.28
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compared with 26.5 percent in industry and construction and 25.9 percent in services.
2
However, from 1960 onward, tourism became increasingly important in terms of GDP and
employment, and by 1973, the Spanish economy was making steady progress toward tertiar-
ization. Services were already the major sector, accounting for almost 40 percent of active
employment, and tourism played a significant role, accounting for more than 8 percent of
GDP.
3
How did Spain build this tourism economy in an economic and political context
marked by economic and institutional constraints?
Literature on the history of Spanish tourism highlights the great leap forward made by the
consolidation of mass tourism from the second half of the 1950s. However, Spain’s success in
tourism dates back to the end of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth
century.
4
Despite infrastructure limitations and poor-quality accommodations, before the
Civil War important public and private Spanish initiatives accomplished significant efforts
to develop tourism. Attempts were made to institutionalize tourism policy and even the
embryo of a public hostelry sector emerged. Particularly important was the provision of public
credit to the tourism sector along with the creation of private companies in fostering the
establishment of travel agencies, transport companies, and accommodation facilities.
5
How-
ever, Spain still lagged behind the leading European countries in the sector—Italy, Germany,
France, and Switzerland—until the aftermath of the Civil War, when tourism became a key
sector for the survival of Franco’s regime.
6
In fact, foreign tourism provided valuable foreign
currency to compensate for the Spanish external trade imbalance and underwrite the cost of
imported goods. In the 1950s, tourism became massive and thus acted as the pillar of eco-
nomic and social development.
7
According to the World Tourism Organization, in the 1950s,
Spain’s share of the world tourism mark et increased from 1.8 percent to 6.2 percent in terms of
foreign visitors and from 0.8 percent to 4.3 percent in terms of tourism revenue. The increasing
European demand within the framework of the Keyne sian policies applied in most western
European countries, along with the international projection of the Spanish tourism sector and
the irruption of northern European tour operators in the domestic market fueled this remark-
able expansion.
8
With a few exceptions, Spanish travel agencies succumbed to competition
from foreign tour operators that, attracted by cheap prices and climate, turned the coasts of
Spain’s Mediterranean provinces and islands into the European center of mass sun and sand
tourism during the 1960s.
9
These tour operators, including the German TUI and Neckermann,
secured the touristic demand and boosted the supply of accommodation. Indeed, their
2. Prados de la Escosura, Progreso económico.
3. Vallejo, “Economía e historia,” 209.
4. Larrinaga, “Turismo siglo XIX,” 157–179; Larrinaga and Vallejo, “Turismo español contemporáneo,”
12–27; Pellejero, Turismo en España; Vallejo, “Turismo primer tercio siglo XX,” 175–211; Vallejo, Lindoso and
Vilar, “Orígenes,” 12–22.
5. Moreno, “Primer sueño,” 234–259; Vallejo and Larrinaga, Orígenes del turismo moderno.
6. Vallejo, “País turístico rezagado,” 9; Vallejo, “¿Bendición?,” 89; Pellejero, “Antecedentes históricos del
turismo,” 21–76.
7. Bayón and Sutil, 50 años; Pack, La invasión pacífica; Vallejo, “Economía e historia,” 203–232.
8. Fúster, Turismo de masas; Larrinaga and Vallejo, “Turismo español contemporáneo,” 12–27; Vallejo,
“¿Bendición?,” 89.
9. Larrinaga and Vallejo, “Turismo español contemporáneo,” 12–27; Manera and Garau, “Masas en el
Mediterráneo,” 390–412; Sánchez, “Auge del turismo europeo,” 201
–224.
1120 Hernández Barahona, San Román, and Gil-López
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financial capacity combined with Spain ’s private initiative to create Spain’s major hotel
chains and consolidate the country as a world tourism power.
10
After the intense growth registered during the first half of the 1960s, Spain’s tourism sector
entered a downward trend from the end of that decade that was reflected in the moderation of
real expenditure per tourist, the fall in touristic real revenue, and the increasing pressure from
European tour operators on national hoteliers.
11
Finally, the 1973 oil shock triggered a crisis
within mass tourism. In the Spanish case, the oversupply of accommodations and the spe-
cialization in highly seasonal tourism oriented to low purchasing power demand acted as
internal drivers to worsen the situation.
12
However, the Spanish tourism sector quickly
overcame this phase of deceleration by diversifying and adapting its supply to new forms of
tourism. Thus, the significant decline in Spain’s share of the international tourist market from
1974 was a temporary event. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, Spain managed
to maintain its leading position as a tourist destination, accounting for between 9 and 13 per-
cent of world tourists and 6 and 8 percent of world tourism income.
13
In short, during the twentieth century, Spain went from being a second-rate tourism nation
to becoming a world tourism power. The mass tourism boom turned the country into a favorite
destination for European tourists eager for sun and sand. The Mediterranean coast and the
archipelagos were overwhelmed by the floods of foreign and national travelers. The entrepre-
neurial character of the businessmen and the flexibility of the workforce, reinforced by
internal migrations, proved decisive in satisfying the needs of the growing demand. These
factors were particularly relevant in the case of the Balearic Islands and were strengthened by
their historical commercial tradition. The demand and supply factors that underpinned the
growth of the touristic sector in Spain were even more intense in the Balearic Islands.
14
By the
early 1960s, the islands were already a “tourist emporium”: No other province was as eco-
nomically dependent on tourism.
15
This paper analyzes the role played by Spanish tourism companies, deeply embedded
in the island of Majorca, in the development of the sector between the 1940s and the 1980s.
To do so, it focuses on the origins and development of four important Spanish multina-
tionals: Meliá, Barceló, Riu, and Iberostar. All are currently among the top fifty hotel chains
in the world, by revenue and number of rooms managed, and occupy very competitive
positions in major destinations such as the Caribbean.
16
Family-owned, each company
entered tourism in the mid- twentieth century and then performed a successful process of
10. Cirer, “Globalisation of the Hotel Chains,” 27; San Román, Puig and Gil-López, “German Capital,” 1–25.
11. Larrinaga and Vallejo, “Turismo español contemporáneo, ” 12–27; Manera and Garau, “Masas en el
Mediterráneo,” 390–412; Sánchez, “Auge del turismo europeo,” 201–224.
12. During 1958 to 1962, the number of hotels built (5984) exceeded the number of hotels existing at the
beginning of the period (5268). Pack, La invasión pacífica, 308; Larrinaga and Vallejo, “Turismo español
contemporáneo,” 12–27; Vallejo, “¿Bendición?,” 89.
13. Vallejo, “País turístico rezagado,” 9; Vallejo, “¿Bendición?,” 89; Pack, La invasión pacífica; Vallejo,
“Economía e historia,” 203–232.
14. Cirer, Invenció del turisme; Manera, “Història del creixement,” 77–84; Manera and Garau, “Masas en el
Mediterráneo,” 390–412; Segreto, Manera, and Pohl, Seaside.
15. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 597.
16. By number of rooms, worldwide, Meliá ranks nineteenth, Barceló twenty-ninth, RIU thirty-second, and
Iberostar forty-seventh (Hotels Magazine, 2019).
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internationalization.
17
Each founder— José Meliá, Simón Barceló, Juan Riu, and Lorenzo
Fluxá—started out in a sector relatively unrelated to tourism; however, following a process
of diversification, tourism soon became t he core business for each of these entrepreneurs,.
Of the four entrepreneurs under discussion, only José Meliá started his tourist activity in the
1940s, in the midst of Spain’s autarky and international closure. The other three—Barceló,
Fluxá, and Riu—entered this new business by taking advantage of the tourism boom in Spain
in the 1950s.
18
Even though the context was more favorable than during the 1940s, Spain was
still isolated from the international economy, and access to essential resources for entrepre-
neurship, such as capital or external networks, remained significantly restricted.
When analyzing the origins, growth, and internationalization of these Spanish tourism
companies, this paper adopts the theoretical lens of entrepreneurial bricolage and explores
how it acted as an innovation tool for the tourism entrepreneurs, using a close, qualitative
analysis of four historical cases.
The concept of bricolage originated in the seminal work of Lévi-Strauss and was applied to
the field of organization studies by Baker and Nelson, and Duymedjian and Rüling.
19
Bricolage
can be defined as the ability to confront a context of struggle and scarcity through the creative
application of the resources available to entrepreneurs, used in a different way; that is, the
creativity to “make do with what is at hand.”
20
Entrepreneurial bricolage has generally been
studied from a static, short-term perspective. Rather than focusing on the concept of bricolage,
this paper adopts a dynamic historical approach that enables us to explain the evolution of
bricolage in Spanish tourism in the long term, as well as its drivers and implications for
organizations, the sector, and the whole economy.
The paper is divided into five sections. The first section one presents our theoretical
framework, reviewing scholarship on entrepreneurial bricolage and innovation, and the
second section outlines our data sources and methodology. The third section explains the
history of the four entrepreneurs, emphasizing their business activities and, more concretely,
the bricolage actions that allowed them to enter the tourism sector and achieve rapid growth.
Finally, the fourth section presents a thorough analysis, combining empirical evidence with
theoretical interpretations, and the fifth section offers our conclusions.
Entrepreneurial Bricolage and Innovation
The notion of “bricolage” was first introduced in 1962, in Claude Lévi-Strauss’s seminal book
La pensée sauvage as a system for describing the way people relate to their environments.
21
Although Lévi-Strauss did not offer a definition of the concept, business theory usually
interprets it as a type of creativity that emerges without prior planning to resolve a specific
17. San Román et al., “At the crossroads”; Barcia, “Familia”; San Román, Puig, and Gil-López, “ German
Capital,” 1–25.
18. Vallejo, “Economía e historia,” 203–232; San Román, Viajes y estrellas, 61.
19. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366; Duymedjian and Rüling, “Foundation of
Bricolage,” 133–151; Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind.
20. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366.
21. Published in English as The Savage Mind in 1967.
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need, using the means that an individual—the bricoleur—has at his or her disposal. In short, it
is the capacity to “make do with what is at hand.”
22
Bricolage was thus connected to the idea of
the social construction of resources to understand, from a “practical” perspective, how things
work.
23
Since the publication of Lévi-Strauss’s work, bricolage has been used to characterize
organizational practices related to innovation as an alternative route to everyday action and
to interpret entrepreneurship as a process of reusing and combining resources that, gathered
without a clear purpose or intended use, help people cope with an unfavorable environment.
24
Thus, entrepreneurial bricolage relates to how individuals or organizations deploy a resilient
attitude to achieve their goals and handle any difficulties that might arise.
25
While some
authors describe this practice as a last resort, others maintain that bricolage refers less to
resource scarcity than to the ways in which available resources are utilized.
26
Indeed, Baker, Miner, and Eesley have explored how firms generate heterogeneous value
from seemingly identical resources.
27
They pointed out that innovative organizations use
existing resources creatively, challenging general theoretical approaches to their manage-
ment. Thus, firms were able to overcome constraining environments through creative inter-
pretation of available resources, which could be put to new uses through bricolage and
improvisation.
28
In this way, entrepreneurial bricolage rejects the determinism of an unfavor-
able economic and institutional environment and explains why certain companies are able to
create something from nothing, to seize opportunities and develop their initiatives, exploiting
physical, social, or institutional assets that other companies reject or ignore.
29
Within the set of valuable resources for the development of an entrepreneurial initiative,
emphasis has been placed on the value provided by social resources, understood as the set of
people with whom the entrepreneur relates and who constitute his or her network of con-
tacts.
30
Beyond economic, financial, or material resources, the so-called network bricolage
highlights that this network of contacts is very valuable as leverage for acquiring other
resources beyond the immediate reach of the entrepreneur.
31
Since Baker and Nelson, bricolage theory has dominated literature within the field of
management and organization studies but with limited connection to other areas of knowl-
edge.
32
However, approached from a wider perspective, bricolage could be understood as an
innovation tool that offers the opportunity to bring this management literature closer to
22. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366.
23. Fisher, “Effectuation, Causation, and Bricolage,” 1019–1051; Senyard, Baker, and Davidsson, “Entre-
preneurial Bricolage,” 5.
24. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366; Duymedjian and Rüling, “Foundation of
Bricolage,” 133–151; Kwong et al., “Entrepreneurship Through Bricolage,” 435–455.
25. Weick, “Collapse of Sensemaking,” 628–652; Wagner, “Practical Intelligence,” 380–395.
26. Desa and Basu, “Optimization or Bricolage?,” 26–49; Kwong et al., “Entrepreneurship Through Bricolage,”
435–455; Louvel, “Understanding Change,” 669–691.
27. Baker, Miner and Eesley, “Improvising Firms,” 255–276.
28. Baker and Aldrich, “Bricolage and Resource-seeking”; Senyard, Baker, and Davidsson, “Entrepreneur-
ial Bricolage,” 5.
29. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366.
30. Jack, “Network Ties,” 1233
–1259.
31. Baker, Miner, and Eesley, “Improvising Firms,” 255–276.
32. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366.
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broader discussions on the economic history of innovation. As in other areas of academic
study, business history acts as the bridge between theoretical fields, meanwhile serving as an
outstanding empirical ground to test and develop theories.
According to Schumpeter, innovation is a deviation from existing and traditional ways of
doing things and depends on the ability of entrepreneurs to act, based on their “freedom of
mind” or their “rebellion” against the status quo.
33
Innovation is “the fundamental impulse
that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion,” as it allows for its continuous evolution
and modernization through creative destruction.
34
This describes a process of industrial
change that destroys existing economic structures from within and creates new ones.
35
Most
studies have long identified innovation as a key driver of economic growth and authors such as
Demirel and Mazzucato has proven a positive association between innovation and firm
growth.
36
Innovation influences and is influenced by the market and the socioeconomic context. As
different authors stress, innovation is presented as a dynamic and complex system that results
from a combination of interactions within firms and between firms and with the technological
systems in which they operate.
37
Innovation can take two basic forms, as both Brentani and Fagerberg have stressed: incre-
mental (or adaptive) and radical (or discontinuous).
38
Incremental innovations involve
updates of technologies that modify existing technological paradigms. A technological para-
digm is defined by the set of models, patterns, or schemes of possible solutions that lead to new
forms of production, new products or lifestyles, or different working conditions.
39
Radical
innovations, on the other hand, drive technological regime shifts involving new technical
functions, knowledge bases, and organizational forms.
40
Incremental innovations are usually
represented by small adaptations—for example, modification of the concept of an existing
service—while radical innovations lead to changes in market structures or even generate new
markets.
41
Mintzberg characterizes incremental change as a series of small steps that gradually
shape new strategies.
42
Radical change is, however, identified with remarkable disruption that
33. Schumpeter, Economic Development,86–94.
34. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy,82–83.
35. Ibid.
36. Aghion, Akcigit, and Howitt, “Schumpeterian Growth Theory,” 515–563; Aghion and Howitt, “Crea-
tive Destruction,” 323–351; Demirel and Mazzucato, “Innovation and Firm Growth,” 45–62; Romer, “Endog-
enous Technological Change,” 71–102.
37. Freeman, “National System,” 5–24; Rosenberg, Black Box; Dosi, “Effects of Innovation,” 1120–1171;
Lundvall, “Interactive Process,” 349–369.
38. Brentani, “Innovative Versus Incremental,” 169–187; Fagerberg, “Innovation,” 1–26; Gopalakrishnan
and Damanpour, “Innovation Research,” 15–28; Hall and Williams, Tourism and Innovation.
39. Dosi, Technical Change. The technological, economic, and social choices that define a given paradigm
give rise to a technological trajectory. A technological paradigm reaches maturity when the returns generated by
innovations in the set of technologies to which it gives rise do not produce the expected benefits. Consequently,
another paradigm may emerge with the appearance of new technologies that will produce a change in the
technological trajectory. The new paradigm will surface when the scientific base that generated the previous one
is radically modified.
40. Acemoglu, Akcigit, and Celik, “Young, Restless and Creative.”
41. Engen and Holen, “Radical Versus Incremental,” 15–25.
42. Mintzberg, “Strategy-making,
” 44–53; Mintzberg, “Strategy Formation,” 934–948.
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occurs repeatedly when facing an environment of uncertainty, crisis, or considerable oppor-
tunities.
43
Therefore, these two forms of innovation differ in their time frames, complexity, commit-
ment of resources, places of development, degree of novelty in the use of knowledge, and also
in the learning processes, risk profiles, limitations, and socioeconomic changes that accom-
pany them.
44
The returns of the two types of innovation are also different. While incremental
innovations have diminishing returns in a given “technology cluster,”
45
radical innovations
create new technological paradigms that increase productivity directly but also indirectly by
facilitating new incremental innovations.
46
Freeman and Louçã argue that the paradigm shift
brought about by radical innovation constitutes the fundamental way in which innovation
relates to economic growth.
47
Indeed, this mode of innovation involves not only a change in
firms and their associated knowledge bases, but a large-scale change in scientific and techno-
logical knowledge, in infrastructures, and even in the economic and technological organiza-
tion of national economies.
Kline and Rosenberg identify the two driving forces of innovation: scientific and techno-
logical progress, from the supply side, and market, from the demand side.
48
Authors who
stress the importance of supply as a driver for innovation, under the so-called science and
technology–push approach, insist on the role of advances in scientific knowledge that create
technological opportunities, thus driving the direction and pace of innovation.
49
On the other
hand, the demand-pull approach argues that demand determines the direction and pace of
innovation to the extent that changes in market conditions create opportunities for firms to
invest in unmet needs. Therefore, demand “guides” firms in solving problems.
50
Both approaches have limitations. The science and technology–push approach ignores
changes in prices and other economic conditions that affect the profitability of innovations.
51
The demand-pull approach, on the other hand, ignores technological capabilities and explains
incremental change better than radical change, when the latter is precisely the most relevant
for understanding economic growth.
52
Less strict interpretations argue that, in order to explain
innovation, both supply and demand factors need to be considered.
53
Both contribute to
innovation and interact with each other.
54
As Mowery and Rosenberg point out, the science
and technology–push and demand-pull approaches are “necessary but not sufficient for
innovation to occur, both must exist simultaneously.”
55
43. Huy and Mintzberg, “Rhythm of Change,” 79–84.
44. Smith, “Radical Energy Innovation, ” 1–55.
45. Akcigit and Kerr, “Heterogeneous Innovations,” 1374–1443; Abrams, Akcigit, and Grennan, “Patent
Value.”
46. Acemoglu, Akcigit, and Celik, “Young, Restless and Creative.”
47. Freeman and Louçã, As Time Goes By.
48. Kline and Rosenberg, “Overview of Innovation,” 289–298.
49. Bush, “Endless Frontier.”
50. Rosenberg, “Technological Change,” 1–24.
51. Kline and Rosenberg, “Overview of Innovation,” 289–298; Freeman, “Technical Change,” 463–514;
Freeman and Louçã, As Time Goes By.
52. Mowery and Rosenberg, “Market Demand,” 102–153; Walsh, “Chemical Industry,” 211–234.
53. Nemet, “Demand-Pull, Technology-Push,” 700–709.
54. Arthur, “Structure of Invention,” 274–287.
55. Mowery and Rosenberg, “Market Demand,” 143.
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Using innovation as a lens to interpret bricolage, the literature interprets bricolage actions
as clearly innovative in nature, introducing something new and being potentially useful.
56
Thus, bricolage is considered to be an innovation tool to the extent that it gives rise to the
creation of new options through the transformation and recombination of existing resources.
57
According to Garud and Karnøe, such innovations are rarely radical, yet involve incremental
changes that generate moderate gains rather than breakthroughs.
58
In this way, bricolage can
be linked with the dimension of relatively small innovations that, under a cumulative impact,
drive change.
59
Following Busch and Barkema, bricolage should be seen as “a local source of
low-cost innovation” whose long-term implementation is made possible by replicating suc-
cessful models and adapting them to diverse local contexts.
60
However, despite this low-tech,
local innovation approach, bricolage can generate remarkable results through the interaction
of entrepreneurs with local knowledge and the accumulation of the stimuli generated by these
actors to create new technological trajectories.
61
As we have already pointed out, bricolage and innovation have evolved as separate aca-
demic silos despite their close connection. Although bricolage is the main theoretical per-
spective of our paper, connecting bricolage with innovation will allow us to approach the
ways in which entrepreneurs in the Spanish tourism industry created, developed, and inter-
nationalized their businesses, in different historical contexts, using bricolage as a tool for
innovation. Our research connects with Broekel’s and Flanagan, Uyarra, and Laranja’s ideas
on the need to study innovation through micro-level transformation processes. This avenue
focuses on the available inputs for the entrepreneurial activity and the results obtained
therefrom, helping to unravel the “black box” of innovation.
62
Methodology and Data
Because this research aims t o expose the role played by bricolage in the history of four
Spanish tourism companies and their evolution over time, descriptive data are required to
identify possible common patterns of behavior among the companies. This paper therefore
employs a qualitative method, which fits our interest focused on the “ how” rather than the
“what.”
63
This methodology follows previous studies that point to qualitative research as
56. Gopalakrishnan and Damanpour, “Patterns,” 95–116.
57. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy; Usher, Mechanical Inventions. Venkataraman,
“Distinctive Domain,” 119–138; Garud, Kumaraswamy, and Nayyar, “Fool’s Gold,” 212–214.
58. Garud and Karnøe, “Bricolage Versus Breakthrough,” 277–300; Senyard, Baker, and Davidsson,
“Entrepreneurial Bricolage,” 5.
59. Rosenberg, “Technological Change,” 1–24.
60. Busch and Barkema, “From Necessity,” 741–773.
61. Garud and Karnøe, “Bricolage Versus Breakthrough,” 277–300.
62. Broekel, “Collaboration Intensity,” 155–179; Flanagan, Uyarra, and Laranja, “Policy Mix for
Innovation,” 702–713; Rosenberg, Black Box.
63. Yin, “Abridged Version,” 229–259.
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suitable for the study of connections between an organization’s past and present.
64
Qual-
itative research also suggests mechanisms for generating richer and more dynamic theo-
ries.
65
The qualitative research in this paper is based on four case studies. This method, while
unable to generate standardized results, is useful if the cases are particularly representative for
the research objective, as is the case with the four companies chosen, all of which are impor-
tant players in their sector.
66
In addition, case studies allow theory development through in-
depth analysis of empirical phenomena and their contexts.
67
Case studies are also particularly
effective in providing a detailed sense of the context that forms the backdrop to the ways in
which entrepreneurs implement the change process.
68
Finally, a historical case study
approach provides a profound understanding of entrepreneurial dynamics.
69
Our empirical research is based on an extensive collection of written and oral sources (see
Table 1) gathered between 2013 and 2021, some in connection with a research project on
Grupo Iberostar and others specifically collected for this paper. Oral history allows us to create
“historical evidence through conversation with a person whose life experience is considered
memorable.”
70
The limitations of this type of research rest mainly on the nature of orality,
researcher–informant interaction, and memory.
71
Consequently, information may be biased
due to “memory loss, selective memories and social desirability,” which may lead to processes
of seduction, whereby the interviewer discovers an ideal character rather than a real charac-
ter.
72
We addressed these problems of interview bias by approaching knowledgeable infor-
mants who saw the phenomena from a variety of perspectives and by cross-checking their
views with archival documents, external primary sources (historic press), and secondary
sources, mainly published books and articles about the companies.
73
The combination of oral
and written sources, internal and external to the companies, provided different perspectives to
guide our interpretations, supporting the overall credibility of our sources and the validity of
our findings.
74
Meliá, Barceló, Iberostar, and Riu: The Four Main Actors of the
Spanish Tourism Industry
Table 2 provides basic inform ation on the four main Sp anis h-owned h otel comp anies : Me liá,
Barceló, Iberostar, and Riu. The first three diversified their previous businesses toward
64. Nancy, Bryant-Lukosius, and DiCenso, “Triangulation”; Garud, Kumaraswamy, and Nayyar, “Fool’s
Gold,” 212–214.
65. Hoang and Antoncic, “Research in Entrepreneurship,” 165–187.
66. Yin, “Designing Case Studies,” 359–386.
67. Dubois and Gadde, “Systematic Combining,” 553–560.
68. Bryman, Social Research Methods.
69. Dodgson, “Exploring New Combinations,” 1119–1151.
70. Clark, Hyde, and McMahan, “Oral History,” 240; Ritchie, Handbook of Oral History.
71. Abrams, Oral History Theory.
72. Sanz Hernández, “El método biográfico,” 99–116.
73. Eisenhardt and Graebner, “Building from Cases,” 25–32.
74. Kipping, Wadhwani and Bucheli, “Interpreting Historical Sources,” 305–329.
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Table 1. Main written and oral sources
Data description
Interview information:
Carried out between 2013 and 2021
Length: between one and three hours
Recorded and transcribed verbatim
Meliá details
Primary oral sources: 4
Interview with José Meliá Goicoechea (September 16, 2015), Iberostar Archive
Interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea (September 23, 2015), Iberostar Archive
Interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea (May 28, 2021)
Interview with José Meliá Goicoechea (June 2, 2021)
Primary written sources: 3
José Meliá, “Arrels. Memoirs of José Meliá Goicoechea” (n.d.).
Historic press: ABC, La Vanguardia Española
Secondary sources: 3
Luis Fúster, Historia general del turismo de masas (Madrid: Alianza, 1991).
Pedro Galindo Vegas, “José Meliá Sinisterra (1911–1999),” in Los 100 empresarios españoles del siglo XX, edited by
Eugenio Torres (Madrid: LID, 2000), pp. 444–450.
Elena San Románet al., “Networking from Home to Abroad: The Internationalization of the Iberostar Group,” in The
Palgrave Handbook of Family Firm Internationalization, edited by Tanja Leppäaho and Sarah Jack (Cham, Switzerland:
Springer International Publishing, 2021), pp. 327–360.
Barceló details
Primary oral sources: 1
Interview with Gabriel Barceló (September 6, 2013), Iberostar Archive
Primary written sources: 1
Historic press: La Vanguardia Española
Secondary sources: 5
Fundación Barceló, Sebastián Barceló. Su vida, su obra, su pensamiento; Publicación homenaje en su 65º aniversario
(Madrid: Fundación Barceló, 1995).
Barceló Group, Barceló 75 años. Memoria de un viaje compartido (Madrid: La Fábrica, 2016).
Joan Buades, Do Not Disturb. Barceló. Viaje a las entrañas de un imperio turístico (Barcelona: Icaria, 2007).
Joan Pla, Gabriel Barceló, semblanza de un líder (Palma de Mallorca: OMNI, 1993).
Marta Vidal Suárez, “La estrategia de internacionalización de las empresas de servicios: el caso del grupo Barceló,”
Dirección y Organización, no. 25 (2001): 36–46.
Iberostar details
Primary oral sources: 4
Interview with Guillermo Reus (February 13, 2013), Iberostar Archive
Interview with Miguel Fluxá (March 20, 2013), Iberostar Archive
Interview with Lorenzo Fluxá (October 2, 2013), Iberostar Archive
Interview with Miguel Fluxá (April 20, 2015), Iberostar Archive
Primary written sources: 2
Letter from Lorenzo Fluxá Figuerola to Catalina Rosselló, Rome, Hotel Lago Maggiore, February 2, 1944, Iberostar
Archive
Historic press: La Vanguardia Española
Secondary sources: 3
Elena San Román, Viajes y estrellas. Miguel Fluxá. Una historia de emprendimiento (Madrid: Ediciones El Viso, 2017).
Elena San Román et al. “Networking from Home to Abroad: The Internationalization of the Iberostar Group, ” in The
Palgrave Handbook of Family Firm Internationalization, edited by Tanja Leppäaho and Sarah Jack (Cham, Switzerland:
Springer International Publishing, 2021), pp. 327–360.
Josep Tà
pies, Elena San Román, and Águeda Gil-López, 100 familias que cambiaron el mundo. Las empresas familiares y
la industrialización (Barcelona: Fundación Jesús Serra, 2014).
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tourism, starting with travel agencies. This activity required relatively little capital at a time
when Spain struggled to support its entrepreneurs financially, clearing the way for scarce
and highly coveted international currencies.
75
From his citrus fruit export business, José
Meliá founded Viajes Meliá in the early 1940s, and he established a bus transport company
in 1945 to supply his travel agency. Likewise, Simón Barceló s upplemented his transport
company with an agency dedicated to selling bus ti cke ts. In 1956, Lorenzo Flu xá, see king
access to f oreign currency to secure raw m aterial for his footwear compan y, L otusse, pur-
chased a small travel agency called Viajes Iberia, founded in 1930. All three seized on their
experience in the travel sector in pursuit of vertical integration, subsequently entering the
hotel business. Only Juan Riu made the leap directly from his previous non-tourism business
to hotels.
As Table 2 shows, three of the four entrepreneurs started their tourist activity in Majorca
during the 1950s. This remarkable occurrence can be explained by the consolidation of the
island as one of the main tourist destinations in Europe. In fact, during the 1950s and 1960s,
the Balearic economy underwent an intense transformation from its former agro-industrial
economic structure to a late process of industrial development and a quick deindustrialization
that ended up in a service economy based on tourism.
76
As a consequence, between 1950 and
1970, industry as part of the islands’ GDP dropped by more than 10 percentage points, and real
GDP per capita grew by 5.8 percent annually.
77
Riu details
Primary oral sources: 1
Interview with Carmen Riu (February 26, 2016), Iberostar Archive
Primary written sources: 3
“Contracts and Clearing Documents Between Riu and TUI,” Riu Archive, no. 26–30.
“Join Venture Project Describing the Plan and Next Steps,” Riu Archive, no. 3.
Historic press: La Vanguardia Española
Secondary sources: 2
Begoña Fuster. “Crecimiento internacional de cadenas hoteleras vacacionales españolas desde una perspectiva global:
un estudio de casos,” Cuadernos de turismo, no. 25 (2010): 67–97.
“Riu Hotels & Resorts; About Riu,” accessed September 22, 2021, https://www.riu.com/en/about/historia.jsp.
Source: Compiled by the authors.
75. Throughout his correspondence, Lorenzo Fluxá frequently ref ers to the problem s caused by the
shortage of foreign currency in his activi ty as a footwear businessman: “Until today we have not been able to
solve the problem of leaving for Switzerland, as we have experi enced some pr oblems with currency
exchange […]wehavelostalotofworkwiththiscurrencyissue.” Letter from Lorenzo Fluxá Figuerola to
Catalina Rosselló, Rome, Hotel Lago Maggiore, Fe bruary 2, 1 944, Iberostar Archi ve. For hi s part, Miguel
Fluxá, son of Lorenzo Fluxá, acknowledged, “When I started, I started with the incoming business, because
the incoming business doesn’t need capital, it needs connections.” I nt erview with Miguel Flu xá , M arch
20, 2013.
76. Manera and Valle, “Industria y servicios,” 213; Ceballos and Tomàs, “Archipiélagos,” 206–237. Reig
and Tadeo, Economía balear.
77. Manera and Valle, “Industria y servicios,” 213; Maluquer de Motes, “Islas Baleares,” 260.
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Table 2. Basic data of the four companies
Name
Start of
tourist
activity
Starting point of
tourist activity Founder
Founder’s
entrepreneurial start First hotel
First hotel
outside the place
of origin
First
hotel
abroad
First
country
abroad
Current situation/
generation
No.
hotels
2019
a
No.
rooms
2019
a
Meliá 1939 Valencia José Meliá International trade
and ship
consignment
1948 (Toledo) 1948 (Toledo) 1972 Mexico Sold in 1987 to
Gabriel Escarrer
(Meliá
International
Hotels)
325 82,011
Riu 1953 Palma de Majorca Juan Riu Fruit trade 1953 (Palma de
Majorca)
1985 (Gran
Canaria)
1991 Dominican
Republic
Third 99 47,982
Barceló 1954 Palma de Majorca Simón Barceló Bus transport 1962 (Palma de
Majorca)
1970 (Benidorm) 1985 Dominican
Republic
Third 251 57,493
Iberostar 1956 Palma de Majorca Antonio Fluxá Shoes 1962 (Palma de
Majorca)
1967 (Málaga) 1993 Dominican
Republic
Third and fourth 104 35,700
Source: Compiled by the authors based on the information obtained in the interviews.
a
Data from Hotels Magazine (2019). We use 2019 data, because 2020 data are nonrepresentative, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
The islands’ ascent as a tourist destination was fueled by the Spanish and European
socioeconomic context, but also by the archipelago’s own characteristics.
78
Among the factors
key to the Balearic Islands’ success were the market knowledge accumulated over long
centuries of trading, the “Schumpeterian” character of the entrepreneurs, and the flexibility
of the factors of production, especially labor.
79
In the 1950s, as a result of the irruption of mass
tourism, the leisure sector received a significant transfer of investment, labor, and organiza-
tional strategies. Ultimately, Majorca brought together all the necessary elements to promote
tourism development that was almost unique in Spain and had few competitors in the Med-
iterranean.
80
In fact, the “tourism intensity” of the Balearic Islands was eighteen times bigger
than the national average in 1962, and twice that of Madrid, which ranked second.
81
Meliá
Since the nineteenth century, the family of José Meliá Sinisterra (1911–1999) was linked to
citrus fruit exportation and ship consignment, the German Neptune shipping company being
its main customer.
82
José joined the family business around 1932, and one of his first entre-
preneurial activities entailed modifying the process of buying oranges, thus differentiating the
firm from its competitors in a growing sector during the years before the Civil War.
83
Instead of
buying ripe fruit, as was the custom, he opted to buy citrus fruit in blossom. This decision
allowed him to acquire the fruit at a lower cost while assuming the risk of its failing to ripen.
84
This decision implied a radical transformation of the sector, as it forced the rest of the
competitors to follow the same process in order to compete.
85
The isolation of Spain following the Spanish Civil War opened an interesting window of
opportunity for Meliá to diversify his business and enter tourism. The difficulty of travel, and
the lack of means of transport, gave Meliá an intriguing idea: He would take advantage of the
empty cabins on the ships that transported citrus fruits from Valencia to North Africa, offering
them as tourist transport, aimed in particular at honeymooners. This was the starting point of
Viajes Meliá, which was officially registered as a travel agency in 1942.
86
78. Nevertheless, as Vallejo recalls, tourism was not a postwar novelty in the Balearic Islands, and it is
linked to a not insignificant tourist activity developed in the first third of the century in all of Spain, fed mainly
by domestic tourism. In fact, in contrast to this tourism fueled by domestic demand, Majorca was the destination
with the greatest relative presence of foreigners between 1900 and 1936. In fact, the islands ranked fourth among
Spanish provinces for the number of travel agencies. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 168, 473.
79. Cirer, “Beginnings of Tourism,” 1779–1796; Manera, “Model històric,” 8–18; Manera and Valle,
“Industria y servicios,” 210–219; Manera et al., “Turismo de masas,” 155–187; Méndez Vidal, “Eclosión del
turismo,” 163–185.
80. Cirer, Invenció del turisme.
81. Vallejo, Turismo en España. Vallejo, Lindoso, and Vilar, created an innovative tourism intensity
indicator to measure and compare the evolution of tourism within Spain. The indicator shows the presence
of key words such as “tourism,”“travel agency,” or “touristic industry” in the digitalized historical Spanish
press. Vallejo, Lindoso, and Vilar, “Antecedentes,” 137–188.
82. https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/26014/jose-melia-sinisterra, accessed August 18, 2021.
83. During the first third of the twentieth century, Spain became the world’s largest exporter of oranges, and
Valencia played a key role in achieving this. Giner, “Desarrollo agrario,” 105–147.
84. Interview with José Meliá Goicoechea, September 16, 2015.
85. Meliá, “Arrels,” 115.
86. Meliá, “Arrels,” 188; Delgado Jiménez, “Agencias de viaje”; Sierra Gómez, “Redes y emprendimiento.”
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In its early days, José Meliá’s agency was mainly concerned with organizing trips and
selling tickets.
87
However, throughout the 1940s, the company also began to offer accommo-
dation services to travelers. In tourism terminology, Meliá thus encompassed the three main
branches of tourism: (1) outbound tourism—selling and organizing trips; (2) inbound tourism
—attending to travelers when they are in a place, organizing transfers and excursions; and
(3) hotels.
88
For his inbound activities, and given the shortage of transport in post–Civil War
Spain, José Meliá had the idea of converting trucks and ambulances from the war into buses.
To provide accommodations for clients, in 1948, the Meliá family decided to rent and convert
the Hostal del Cardenal in Toledo, one of the main cities where his travel agency organized
trips, into a full hotel.
89
This diversification strategy facilitated the growth of the business;
however, any further expansion required two essential assets: buses and foreign currency. To
expand transport possibilities, Meliá turned to the network of contacts he had developed
before and during the Civil War to obtain the necessary authorization to import German MAN
buses. This was a difficult permit to obtain in 1940s Spain, which lived under an autarkic
regime with limited external connections. After acquiring the authorization, the company
increased and modernized its fleet of buses.
90
As far as foreign currency was concerned, the
main source of access was operating abroad. To this end, Meliá resorted to an agent of the
German Neptune shipping company who helped him launch a new service of excursions in
Vienna.
91
From the late 1940s onward, organizing trips from Valencia to Majorca became an increas-
ingly important part of Meliá’s activities. Palma de Majorca strengthened its role as a desti-
nation and center for Balearic tourism.
92
The arrival of tourists to Palma was a growing source
of income for the company, but the supply of hotels on the islands was very scarce.
93
This led
José Meliá to build his first hotel in Majorca, the Bahía Palace, in 1950.
94
Once again, the
scarcity of resources needed for carrying out the project was overcome with great creativity.
Meliá devised a form of financing—“the points system”—that would eventually become
standard practice in the construction of his hotels: dividing the cost of each hotel into “points”
distributed among his friends. Those who subscribed to a certain number of points became
87. The beginnings of the trips organized by Meliá are controversial, yet beyond the scope of this research.
The company’s buses not only transported tourists on their routes, but also actively participated in the transit of
people arriving in Spain after the humanitarian disaster of World War II: Nazis, Jewish survivors, exiles, etc. In
the words of the journalist Arthur Sandles in the Financial Times on October 31, 1969: “Meliá started a bus
travel business based on the transfer of refugees.” Galindo Vegas, “Meliá,” 444–450.
88. Outbound tourism has historically encompassed two complementary modalities: wholesale agencies
or tour operators and retail agencies. Fúster, Teoría y técnica, 320.
89. Interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea, September 23, 2015; interview with José Meliá Goicoe-
chea, September 16, 2015. Until José Meliá took over, the hostel offered poor-quality accommodations focused
mainly on catering. Fúster, Turismo de masas.
90. Interview with José Meliá Goicoechea, September 16, 2015.
91. Ibid.
92. In 1935, Palma de Majorca had 68 percent of the travel agencies in the Balearic Islands, and in 1962,
75 percent. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 470.
93. During these years, the hotel supply grew to 6022 beds available in 1955. López i Palomeque, “Geo-
grafia del turismo,” 49.
94. Interview with José Meliá Goicoechea, September 16, 2015.
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part of the hotel’s board of directors, and the liquidity provided by all the partners financed the
construction process.
95
After this first venture into the hotel business, the family built more accommodations in
different places along the routes covered by the Viajes Meliá buses across the peninsula,
especially in Andalusia.
96
Finally, in 1955, the company Hoteles Meliá was founded to unite
the entire portfolio under a single brand. The growth of the company meant that new sources of
financing were required due to the depletion of the usual shareholders involved in hotel
construction. In 1965, José Meliá’s son, Francisco Meliá (1937), came up with a new formula,
introducing the American aparthotel concept to Spain, a hybrid between a real estate business
and a hotel business.
97
This idea was not only a new financing model for construction, but a
sample of the modernization process that the touristic supply underwent during the 1960s in
Majorca. According to Vallejo, new accommodation formulas arose from the need to meet
increasing demand in the face of limited financial means across this decade.
98
The 1950s and 1960s were fundamental for the development of José M eliá’s company. The
takeoff of tourism as an engine of the Spanish economy allowed Meliá to internationalize his
company.
99
The le ap into international markets involved the company’stwolinesofbusi-
ness, travel agencies and hotels, and Meliá became the first Spanish businessman to expand
his hotel chain beyond national bor ders.
100
Table 3 shows the status of Meliá’s hotel devel-
opment in 1973 showing the dimension of the international expansion.
101
Barceló
Simón Barceló (1902–1958) began his entrepreneurial journey at a very basic transport com-
pany, which became Autocares Barceló in 1931.
102
The lack of transport in Spain, and
especially in the Balearic Islands, prevented him from acquiring a complete, brand-new
vehicle. Therefore, Barceló began operating from a chassis that he converted and fitted out,
transforming it into his truck.
103
The new bus line began with this vehicle, which ran between
Felanitx and Palma, transporting passengers, mail, and goods.
104
Interestingly, to support the
launch of the business, Barceló created a system that became a precursor of modern courier
services, exploiting the downtime at railway destinations to collect and deliver parcels.
105
95. Interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea, September 23, 2015.
96. ABC, May 26, 1957, 23; La Vanguardia Española, April 13, 1950, 9; Vallejo, Turismo en España, 608.
97. ABC, January 25, 1968, 62, February 18, 1968, 74, March 24, 1968, 58; La Vanguardia Española, March
3, 1968, 58, December 12, 1968, 10; interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea, May 28, 2021.
98. On January 1, 1965, there were 300,584 hotel vacancies and 302,350 in extra-hotel vacancies in Spain.
By the end of the year, the latter already accounted for 60 percent of the total. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 620;
Vallejo, “¿Bendición?,” 89.
99. Interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea, September 23, 2015.
100. San Román et al., “Networking from Home,” 327–360.
101. Interview with Francisco Meliá Goicoechea, May 28, 2021.
102. Interview with Gabriel Barceló, September 6, 2013; Serrano Altimiras, “Historia de una familia,” 64–65.
103. Barceló Group, Barceló 75 años.
104. Regular road passenger transport lines in Spain grew by 4–5 percent annually between 1930 and 1933.
Hernández Marco, “Compañías ferroviarias españolas,” 350; Pla, Gabriel Barceló.
105. Barceló Group, Barceló 75 años.
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After the Civil War, the economic downturn and the shortage of petrol made it difficult for
Barceló to resume his transport activities.
106
In 1944, to counteract these problems and gain
additional income, Simón Barceló decided to open the Bar Oriente, located in Felanitx.
107
In
so doing, he created a new business concept, whereby the establishment would no longer
function as a traditional bar, but as a point of arrival and departure for coaches, turning
travelers into potential customers of his restaurant and vice versa.
108
In the 1950s, Barceló became a pioneer of Balearic tourism by adding an extra service to his
transport company: offering tourist excursions around the island.
109
The success of this
service encouraged the entrepreneur to enter the travel agency sector in 1954 through
Table 3. International hotel development of the Meliá family before 1973
Hotel Place Date
a
Operational
Spa Meliá San
José Purúa
Michoacán (Mexico) 1972
Meliá Purúa Hidalgo Mexico D.F. (Mexico) 1972
Meliá Puerto La Cruz Venezuela 1974
Under construction/negotiation
Meliá Caribe Venezuela 1973
Meliá Bagdad Iraq 1973
Meliá San Andrés Colombia 1973
Meliá Santo Domingo Dominican Republic 1973
Meliá Ammán Jordan 1972
Semiramis Egypt 1972
Shepheard 1972
Casablanca Morocco 1973*
Marrakech 1973*
Agadir 1973*
Meliá Barbados Barbados 1973*
Acapulco Mexico 1973*
México D.F. 1973*
Ensenada 1973*
Meliá Aruba Aruba 1973*
Aparthotel Meliá San Juan Puerto Rico 1973*
Aparthotel Meliá London London 1973*
Caracas Venezuela 1973*
Litoral 1973*
Isla Margarita 1973*
Aparthotel Meliá París France 1973*
Meliá Contadora Panama 1973*
Source: Sierra Gómez, “Redes y emprendimiento,” table 2,p.21.
a
An asterisk (*) denotes hotel under construction in 1973.
106. Ibid.
107. Ibid.
108. Ibid.
109. Barceló Group, Barceló 75 años; Buades, Do Not Disturb,29–31.
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establishment in Majorca of a subsidiary of the Catalan travel agency Ultramar Express.
110
In
1960, Barceló created its own travel company, Viajes Barceló.
111
After Simón Barceló ’s death in 1958, the company passed to his two sons, who divided its
management.
112
Gabriel Barceló took charge of the travel agency, while Sebastián Barceló
headed up the transport division.
113
The arrival of the second generation coincided with the
company’s entry into new activities: construction and hotels. Sebastián Barceló supplemen-
ted his activities in the transport sector by creating the company Construcciones Arte, founded
in 1959, engineered to build a depot for the company’s buses. However, given the shortage of
accommodations in Majorca, the company soon participated in the construction of the Barceló
family’s first hotel, the Hotel Latino in El Arenal (Palma de Majorca), which opened in 1962.
114
Four years later, in 1966, the company built the Hotel Pueblo on the Playa de Palma.
115
The
Pueblo hotel was an important milestone—a pioneering model in Spain; it introduced a new
concept to the hotel industry and inspired today’s “resorts.”
116
In effect, the Barceló brothers
realized that Majorca contained large plots of land of great, untapped natural value, and they
decided to build a type of extensive hotel that offered a plethora of services aimed at family
summer holidays. Thus, Barceló also contributed to the abovementioned modernization
process that Majorca experienced during the 1960s to adapt supply to growing demand.
117
Barceló’s internationalization took place in a different context from Melia’s case. While the
latter took advantage of the mass tourism boom to go abroad, Barceló did so within the context
of tourism recovery after the slowdown following the 1973 oil crisis. The company’s foreign
activity began in 1981 with the purchase of an already internationalized Spanish tour oper-
ator, Turavia. Regarding Barceló ’s hotel business, the international breakthrough came in the
mid-1980s, when Gabriel Barceló purchased virgin land in the eastern part of the Dominican
Republic for hotel development. The Playa Bávaro opened in 1985 with four hundred beds
and became the first beach resort built by Spaniards abroad, a new concept of a tropical beach
hotel soon imitated by Meliá, Riu, and Iberostar.
118
Iberostar
The Fluxá family began its entrepreneurial activity within the footwear industry. In 1877,
Antoni Fluxá (1853–1918) opened a small artisan shoe workshop in the town of Inca,
110. “Ultramar Express was founded by the Count of Ruiseñada, a man who had no idea about tourism; but
clearly, at that time, when tourism was just beginning, someone must have told him that this could be the right
thing to do. His managers didn’t really know what to do and a friend met my father and suggested that he set up
an agency in Palma.” Interview with Gabriel Barceló, September 6, 2013.
111. Between 1935 and 1962, the number of travel agency establishments almost tripled in Spain, from
101 to 298. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 467.
112. Already in 1957, the Balearic Islands were the first province in terms of net value contributed by the
hostelry sector with respect to the net value of total production, 8.25 percent. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 597.
113. Fundación Barceló, Sebastián Barceló.
114. Barceló Group, Barceló 75 años.
115. Ibid.
116. Ibid.
117. Vallejo, “¿Bendición?,” 89.
118. Interview with Gabriel Barceló, September 6, 2013; Suárez, “Estrategia de internacionalización,” 36–46.
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Majorca.
119
This business was one of the many textile and footwear companies that emerged in
the Balearic Islands during the 1870s.
120
In 1928, Antoni Fluxá’s son, Lorenzo (1906–1993), took over as director of the factory.
Though he inherited the business in a fragile financial state, Lorenzo Fluxá managed to revive
its fortunes thanks to financial help from friends. By 1936, the company, renamed Lotusse,
was already one of the largest footwear companies in Majorca.
121
After the Civil War and during Spain ’s international isolation, Lorenzo Fluxá needed
foreign currency to acquire the raw materials used in his factory. In 1956, the entrepreneur
decided to buy a travel agency, Viajes Iberia, as a way of accessing foreign currency and to take
advantage of the incipient growth of tourism.
122
He also initiated some activities in the hotel
sector by purchasing, constructing, and investing in and acting as a board member for several
hotels.
123
In 1962, Lorenzo Fluxá’s son, Miguel (1938–), inherited the family’s tourism business,
which expanded, driven by mass tourism, to inbound and outbound tourism and hotels.
In the field of inbound tourism, and after intense commercial activity in America, Miguel
Fluxá achieved important contracts with operators such as American Express in 1966 and
American International Travel Service in 1969, which made Fluxá their exclusive represen-
tative in the Balearic Islands.
124
In addition, in 1979, he signed two exclusive contracts with
the German tour operator Neckermann and the English tour operator Intasun to manage their
incoming business in Spain.
125
A year later he launched an incoming tourism company in the
United States (Visit Us).
126
In the 1980s, Fluxá expanded its inbound business to the Canary
Islands by acquiring a local travel agency (Cyrasa).
127
In terms of outbound tourism, Miguel Fluxá entered the tour operator business in the early
1970s, as a member of the network of Spanish companies that created the country’s first tour
operator: Club de Vacaciones. Shortly afterward, he decided to leave this tour operator to
create his own, Iberojet, which launched in 1973.
128
Almost two decades later, in 1991, Fluxá
also created the first Spanish tour operator in England, Sunworld.
129
119. San Román, Viajes y estrellas.
120. Reig and Tadeo, Economía balear.
121. “Lorenzo had to mortgage the factory and resort to the help of a neighbor and good friend, Miquel Mir,
who lent him cash.” Interview with Miguel Fluxá Rosselló, March 20, 2013. Tàpies, San Román, and López, 100
familias, 175–179.
122. Tàpies, San Román, and López, 100 familias, 175–179.
123. Fernández Pérez and Puig Raposo, “Bonsais,” 459–497; San Román, Viajes y estrellas.
124. San Román, Viajes y estrellas; San Román et al., “Networking from Home,” 327–360.
125. Neckermann was a German tour operator founded in 1967, which was second only to TUI (Touristik
Union International) among German tour operators by the end of the 1960s. Neckermann acquired the English
tour operator Thomas Cook in 1999 and adopted its name. The company ceased operations on September
23, 2019, after declaring bankruptcy. Fúster, Teoría y técnica, 338–339; Tàpies, San Román, and López, 100
familias, 175–179.
126. Interview with Miguel Fluxá, March 20, 2013.
127. Interview with Guillermo Reus, February 13, 2013.
128. Interview with Miguel Fluxá, April 20, 2015.
129. San Román et al., “Networking from Home,” 327–360. Intasun was an English tour group founded by
Harry Goodman in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, it became the second-largest English tour operator in terms
of revenue, behind Thomson.
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Miguel Fluxá sold the small hotels acquired by his father and started a new activity in 1979
with the help of the tour operator Neckermann, which funded him to begin the construction of
luxury hotels in Majorca. With Neckermann’s support, Fluxá acquired large plots of land
formerly used for agricultural purposes, which allowed him to build hotels on virgin bea-
ches.
130
In 1993, Miguel Fluxá internationalized his hotel business by building his first hotel
in Bávaro, Dominican Republic, but he internationalized without the financial support of
Neckermann, which acted only as a commercial partner.
Riu
When Juan Riu (1908–1996) launched his first business venture, a fruit trading company in
Olot (Girona), he traveled each day by truck to Barcelona to purchase fruit at the wholesale
market. Noticing the short average lifespan of the bananas arriving from the Canary Islands,
Riu rented a basement in Barcelona and devised an ingenious sprinkler irrigation system,
which he subsequently patented—a precursor of the systems used today to extend the ripening
time of the fruit.
131
Juan Riu diversified the business of selling fruit by adding a delivery service. To do so, he
took full advantage of his own truck, as well as the daily journeys that took him from the
wholesale market to the retailer. The Spanish Civil War was a hammer blow for the business-
man, who saw his truck confiscated by the authorities. In the immediate postwar period, Riu
turned to a priest from Barcelona, with institutional contacts in the Franco regime, to obtain a
replacement truck that would allow him to restart his business. In exchange, Riu would help
him to get food for the children of the orphanage he ran. This truck was soon joined by others,
by means of new agreements with the clergyman.
Despite the reactivation of this transport service, the downturn of the 1940s forced Juan Riu
to look for new opportunities. In 1950, the Riu family immigrated to Venezuela, where Juan
Riu initially worked as a mechanic.
132
Once there, an opportunity arose for running a hotel,
which had previously been managed by a fellow countryman who was returning to Barcelona.
After three years of hotel experience in Venezuela, the family decided to return home with
some savings and embarked on a new project: developing the hotel sector in Spain. In 1956,
Juan Riu bought the San Francisco Hotel on the Playa de Palma, the first link in the Riu family’s
chain of hotels.
133
The choice of Majorca over his native Gerona was due to the island ’s
potential to become one of the main destinations for mass tourism.
134
Despite the important
hotel development of Gerona in these years, its figures were much lower than those of the
Balearic Islands. Between 1945 and 1970, the weight of the Balearic Islands in the number of
hotel beds in Spain grew by 30 percentage points, while Gerona grew by only 8.4.
135
To increase the flow of foreign clients to the San Francisco Hotel, Riu set out to find a
transnational partner. He took advantage of his son Luis’s honeymoon trip to Germany to send
130. San Román, Viajes y estrellas.
131. Ibid.
132. Ibid.
133. Ibid.
134. In the summer of 1959, eighty flights arrived daily in Palma de Majorca. Vallejo, Turismo en España, 589.
135. Vallejo, “Economía e historia,” 220.
Bricolage and Innovation in Spanish Tourism
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him a series of brochures about his hotel and put him in charge of the search. Luis Riu thus
secured a vital agreement with the German tour operator Dr. Tigges, the future TUI, to attract
German tourism to the island of Majorca.
136
The 1960s and 1970s represented a period of growth and consolidation for Riu’s company
in Majorca, owing to the productive arrangement with the German tour operator and the
development of tourism in the Balearic Islands, promoting Majorca as a winter destination
and cementing tourism from Germany.
137
During these years, the company strengthened its
alliance with TUI, eventually cofounding Riu Hotels S.A. in 1976, with the aim of constructing
new hotels.
138
The expansion of Riu hotels in Spain beyond the Balearic Islands took place in the 1980s
under the guidance of TUI, which on many occasions recommended new locations to its
Spanish partner.
139
Riu began its internationalization in 1991; however, while the German
tour operator was initially reluctant to join the foreign venture, the early success of the Spanish
company drove a change of heart. In 1993, the two partners founded a new hotel management
company, RIUSA II S.A., whose function was jointly to operate the Riu brand hotels abroad.
140
The partnership between TUI and Riu continues to this day, making Riu one of the four largest
hotel companies in Spain.
Bricolage, Innovation, and the Rise and Development of a New Sector
The Appendix identifies and categorizes the main entrepreneurial bricolage actions detected
in our four case studies. As well as noting the historical moment in which they occurred, it
explains both the original use of the resource and its creative use for a new purpose to give rise
to the bricolage action, including the reference source.
Figure 1, based upon the Appendix, illustrates the process of bricolage application in the
four cases studied, and Figure 2 shows the main bricolage actions identified in the trajectories
of the four companies, outlining two distinct stages. Period 1 covers the early professional
development of the entrepreneurs, as well as their first steps in the world of tourism. Period
2 encompasses their entry into the hotel business and the companies’ international expansion.
For each company, Period 1 and Period 2 have their own chronological frameworks, as each
firm launched, diversified, and internationalized its activity on a different timescale.
When the four entrepreneurs began their entrepreneurial activity, at the start of
Period 1, the scarcity of resources in an adverse environment (þ Scarcity) combined with
the entrepreneurs’ lack of previous experience ( Experience) forced them to resort to
136. Dr. Tigges was a travel agency founded in 1928 in Wuppertal, Germany, and was considered one of the
pioneers in the study-trips market. In 1968, Dr. Tigges merged with the German tour operators Scharnow, Touropa,
and Hummel to create TUI, becoming the largest tour operator in Europe. Kopper, “Package Tour,” 67–92.
137. A sample of the contracts signed between Riu and TUI can be found in the Riu Archive, nos. 26–30,
“Contracts and Clearing Documents Between Riu and TUI,” 1963–1966.
138. “Joint Venture Project Describing the Plan and Next Steps,” Riu Archive, 1971.
139. Interview with Carmen Riu, February 26, 2016.
140. “Riu Hotels & Resorts; About Riu,” accessed September 22, 2021, www.riu.com/en/about/historia.jsp;
Fuster, “Cadenas hoteleras vacacionales,” 79–88.
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bricolage, in line with understandings of bricolage as a creative way to overcome contexts of
scarcity.
141
In this way, José Meliá changed the historical use of orange blossom: Rather than letting
them ripen and then selling the mature oranges, he made orange blossom the final product to
be traded. This allowed him to cut costs and revolutionized the market. Simón Barceló reused
a truck chassis to create a bus and start his passenger transport service. Lorenzo Fluxá tapped
his social network of friends for financial providers in 1928, which enabled him to revive the
family business. Finally, Juan Riu repurposed his truck—the original tool of his fruit trade—
using it to set up a new package delivery business.
Bricolage was used once again during Period 1 when the entrepreneurs launched their
tourism activities, showing resilience to achieve their organizations’ objectives.
142
José Meliá
exploited the cabins of the ships that distributed his citrus fruits by renting them to tourists.
Simón Barceló created a new service, touristic excursions, taking advantage of his regular
passenger transport line. Lorenzo Fluxá bought a travel agency to gain access to foreign
currency, enabling him to finance the raw materials needed for his shoe company. Finally,
Juan Riu made creative use of his social network, which assumed an economic purpose when a
compatriot in Venezuela allowed him to become a hotel manager.
Throughout Period 1, all four firms experienced predominantly demand-driven and radical
innovation. It was demand that determined the direction and pace of innovation, as argued by
the demand-pull approach.
143
Indeed, unmet consumer needs, derived from a constraining
Figure 1. Process of bricolage application by tourism entrepreneurs.
141. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366; Duymedjian and Rüling, “Foundation of
Bricolage,” 133–51; Kwong et al., “Entrepreneurship Through Bricolage,” 435–455.
142. Weick, “Collapse of Sensemaking,” 628–652.
143. Rosenberg, “Technological Change,” 1–24.
Bricolage and Innovation in Spanish Tourism
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context during the 1940s and early 1950s, generated opportunities that the four entrepreneurs
were able to seize. The tourist excursions offered by Meliá and Barceló in response to an
unsatisfied domestic demand for tourism in postwar Spain constitute a clear example. The
four entrepreneurs used bricolage to generate innovations that fundamentally changed market
structures, or even created new ones. Arguably, they met the definition of radical innovation
proposed by Engen and Holen.
144
This type of innovation is especially noticeable in the
activities developed by the four entrepreneurs before their respective leaps into the tourism
business, supporting Huy and Mintzberg ’s notion that radical innovation occurs in the face of
uncertainty, crisis, or great opportunity.
145
Thus, for example, Simón Barceló created an
innovative delivery system—a precursor to modern couriers—that promoted the moderniza-
tion of the sector. In this way, radical innovation allowed entrepreneurs to overcome
extremely unfavorable circumstances and enter the Spanish tourism sector. The four cases
also illustrate the relationship between radical innovation and economic growth, as formu-
lated by Freeman and Louçã, demonstrating how this type of innovation not only affects the
companies involved, but also generates large-scale changes in the economy.
146
During Period 2, when the companies moved into the hotel industry, bricolage continued to
shape the business management of the four entrepreneurs, but scarcity became less prominent
( Scarcity) than experience (þ Experience) in their entrepreneurial activity. This differs from
Desa and Basu’s and Kwong and colleagues’ conceptualization of bricolage as a last resort
practice.
147
It supports, however, the interpretation of Louvel, whereby the key factor in
bricolage is not the general scarcity of resources but the way they are used.
148
Indeed, the
environment became less adverse as Spain experienced greater economic growth from the late
1950s onward. Nevertheless, the experience gained in the travel agency business was key to
the bricolage actions that propelled José Meliá, Simón Barceló, and Lorenzo Fluxá to leap into
the hotel business. Meliá—the only entrepreneur to enter Period 2 at the end of the 1940s—
created the concept of aparthotel, reusing hotel rooms to sell them as real estate property,
thereby getting the financial means to build the hotels. Both Barceló and Fluxá gave agricul-
tural land a new purpose by building hotels in prime locations.
Moreover, despite an improving situation from the late 1950s, entrepreneurs continued
turning to bricolage throughout Period 2 to consolidate their companies in Spain and to move
to the international stage. This trajectory once again differs from the theoretical approaches
that understand bricolage as a practice employed only in unfavorable contexts.
149
Moreover,
as opposed to the radical demand-driven innovation of Period 1, innovation in Period 2 is
incremental and driven mainly by supply factors. Following the science and technology–push
approach, innovation was promoted in Spain after the nation’s growth and reincorporation
144. Engen and Holen, “Radical Versus Incremental,” 15–25.
145. Huy and Mintzberg, “Rhythm of Change,” 79–84.
146. Freeman and Louçã, As Time Goes By.
147. Desa and Basu, “Optimization or Bricolage?,” 26–49; Kwong et al., “Entrepreneurship Through
Bricolage,” 435–455.
148. Louvel, “Understanding Change,” 669–691.
149. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366; Duymedjian and Rüling, “Foundation of
Bricolage,” 133–151; Kwong et al., “Entrepreneurship Through Bricolage,” 435–455; Desa and Basu, “Optimi-
zation or Bricolage?,” 26–49; Wagner, “Practical Intelligence,” 380–395.
Bricolage and Innovation in Spanish Tourism
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into international circuits beginning in the early 1950s.
150
In our four cases, this took the form
of an incremental innovation consisting of small changes, which allowed new strategies to be
configured gradually.
151
Thus, for example, Meliá devised a points-based system to finance
the construction of its hotels; Barceló developed a pioneering concept of the resort: the Pueblo
Hotels; Fluxá joined forces with other travel agents to begin a new activity: operating tours; and
Riu used a personal trip to seek a partner to support the company’s expansion. These actions
constituted bricolage practices that enabled a certain diversification or modernization in the
businesses, gradually consolidating their growth and paving the way for their international-
ization.
In short, the four cases analyzed allow us to illustrate how bricolage, and therefore inno-
vation, are present throughout the business evolution of our entrepreneurs, especially in their
transition toward tourism, and subsequently toward growth and internationalization. Our
research demonstrates how the four entrepreneurs follow a common pattern over the years:
Once they have overcome the context of scarcity, they continue to use bricolage as one of the
tools of their business management. However, the resulting innovation, and the factors that
drive it, change over time. While the context of scarcity through unsatisfied demand generates
a radical type of innovation, the subsequent—less restrictive—context favors incremental
innovation driven by supply factors and reinforced by experience.
The analysis of bricolage allows us to identify the “Schumpeterian” profile of the Balearic
entrepreneurial class as a driver of their success.
152
However, this characterization should be
nuanced in our cases. All four entrepreneurs had a marked innovative character, but their
bricolage actions rarely involved a process of creative destruction, even when the resulting
innovation was radical. Thus, except for Meliá’s change in the process of buying oranges, the
rest of the bricolage actions did not mean the disappearance of previous market structures.
Rather, we observe a permanent adaptation to the environment in which the interaction
between resources, economic agents, and the socioeconomic system was key in the techno-
logical paradigm shifts.
153
This also shows the importance of softening the myth of an entrepreneurial hero.
154
The
success of our four cases should be understood in the context of the Balearic Islands and their
commercial tradition. This “know-how” was also reinforced by other factors driving entre-
preneurial bricolage. Among them, the flexibility of the workforce and the collaboration with
foreign tour operators stand out. The first made it possible to overcome the deficits of a skilled
workforce during the beginning of mass tourism in the islands.
155
Labor flexibility occurred at
both the sectoral and geographic levels. From the sectoral perspective, local workers were able
to reorient their professional activity from agriculture and industry to the unfamiliar field of
150. Bush, “Endless Frontier.”
151. Mintzberg, “Strategy-making,” 44–53; Mintzberg, “Strategy Formation,” 934–948.
152. Cirer, “Beginnings of Tourism, ” 1779–1796; Manera, “Model històric,” 8 –18; Manera and Valle,
“Industria y servicios,” 210–219; Manera et al., “Turismo de masas,” 155–187; Méndez Vidal, “Eclosión del
turismo,” 163–185.
153. Rosenberg, Perspectives on Technology.
154. Ruef, “Entrepreneurial groups,” 205–228.
155. García Barrero and Manera, “Labour Recruitment,” 12; Vila, Hoteles hoy.
1142 Hernández Barahona, San Román, and Gil-López
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tourism. From the geographic point of view, the intense transfer of labor from other provinces
to Baleares also facilitated the process.
156
The presence of foreign tour operators constitutes
the second key factor driving bricolage. They provided Spanish hotel companies with com-
mercial and financial support to grow domestically and internationalize. However, the rela-
tionship with these operators was different in each case. Meliá and Barceló limited this link to
the promotion and distribution of their hotel rooms, while Iberostar signed financial and
commercial agreements with Neckermann, which had no stake in the hotel property. Mean-
while, Riu developed a joint venture with TUI in Spain and abroad.
Conclusions
This paper has analyzed how entrepreneurial bricolage, as an innovation tool, facilitated the
emergence, development, and internationalization of four Spanish tourism companies. This
long-term study has enabled us to identify common patterns in the application of bricolage.
Hence, we have shown that the four entrepreneurs did not limit their bricolage actions to
contexts of scarcity but made this type of entrepreneurship a regular practice in their business
management. Thus, unlike Baker and Nelson, Duymedjian and Rüling, Kwong and colleagues,
Desa and Basu, or Wagner, who identify bricolage as a creative tool to start a business and
overcome adverse circumstances, this paper shows that, in our case studies, bricolage can be a
tool for sustained innovation in the long term.
157
However, the resulting innovation and its
drivers change over time. Spain’s constraining context during the 1940s and early 1950s,
through unsatisfied domestic demand, favored radical innovation, which generated disrup-
tive transformations. Nonetheless, Spain’s growth and progressive openness since the early
1950s led the entrepreneurs to move from radical innovation to incremental innovation that
sustained the development of their companies in the long term.
This work also illustrates how entrepreneurial bricolage developed in the long term, as well
as the role it played in the creation of a “tourism economy” in a still backward Spain and
especially in Majorca. Bricolage was a key factor in the four companies’ paths toward their
current leadership positions: from the start of their tourism activities, through the leap into the
hotel business and its subsequent growth, right up to their international expansion. Our work
has also shown that bricolage was not an isolated action taken by entrepreneurs but the result
of their context embeddedness. More specifically, the historical conditions of the Balearic
Islands and their potential as a main tourist destination shaped the trajectory of the four
entrepreneurs. The market culture, the flexibility of the workforce, and the relationship with
foreign tour operators acted as key elements driving bricolage and therefore innovation.
Our paper offers the opportunity to analyze the role that bricolage played in the configu-
ration of Spanish capitalism. This connects with the essence of the first historical works on
entrepreneurship—Schumpeter and later the Harvard School—whose main objective was to
156. Cirer, Invenció del turisme; García and Manera, “Labour Recruitment,” 12; Vila, Hoteles hoy.
157. Baker and Nelson, “Creating Something,” 329–366; Duymedjian and Rüling, “Foundation of
Bricolage,” 133–151; Kwong et al., “Entrepreneurship Through Bricolage,” 435–455; Desa and Basu, “Optimi-
zation or Bricolage?,” 26–49; Wagner, “Practical Intelligence,” 380–395.
Bricolage and Innovation in Spanish Tourism
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understand the dynamics of capitalism:
158
“Research on change from an entrepreneurial
perspective based in opportunities and actions could provide unique insights into the dynam-
ics of markets, industries, and societies.”
159
In our case studies, entrepreneurial bricolage as a
tool for innovation became a response to immediate circumstances and was continually
repurposed over time. This helped to reinforce an entrepreneurial culture and a particular
form of capitalism. Indeed, as Binda and Colli have observed, Spanish capitalism has been
dominated by institutional weakness and a strong state presence, wherein the family business
has played a central role, often acting in clusters, repeatedly profiting from business networks
and struggling to overcome a small domestic market.
160
Integration into the global market
arises from a learning process led by those large family firms and strongly influenced by three
factors: the country’s natural and human resources, its institutional framework, and regional
patterns of economic development.
161
The outcome crystallized in a concrete business culture
that, in the tourism sector, needed bricolage to drive innovation and survive in a time of
scarcity and, thereafter, chose bricolage as a routine, even though context improved. Interest-
ingly, in our cases, innovation as the motor of capitalism did not act through creative destruc-
tion as proposed by Schumpeter.
162
Rather, innovation boosted the development of Spanish
capitalism through a permanent adaptation to the environment. As Rosenberg argues, the
interaction between resources, economic agents, and the socioeconomic system along this
process was key for technological change and economic growth.
163
JORGE HERNÁNDEZ-BARAHONA is a PhD candidate at the Complutense University of Madrid
(Spain) and holds a master’s degree in economics. He was awarded the Extraordinary Prize
of the Degree in Economics (2016–2020) and the UCM Excellence Prize in the Branch of Social
and Legal Sciences. Contact information: Department of Applied Economics, Structure and
History, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040
E
LENA SAN ROMÁN is an associate professor at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain)
and an associate member of the Royal Academy of History (Spain). Her research interests are
focused on business history, entrepreneurship, and family business. Contact information:
Department of Applied Economics, Structure and History, Faculty of Economics and Busi-
Á
GUEDA GIL-LÓPEZ is an assistant professor of economic history at Complutense University of
Madrid (Spain), where she obtained her PhD degree in economics with a European mention.
She was awarded the Complutense Extraordinary PhD Prize of Economics in 2018. Her
research interests include business history, entrepreneurship, and family business. Contact
158. Valdaliso, “Historia empresarial,” 417–433.
159. Wadhwani et al., “Context, Time, and Change,” 15.
160. Binda and Colli, “Changing Big Business,” 14–39; Fernández Pérez and Puig Raposo, “Bonsais, ” 459–
497; San Román et al. “Networking from Home,” 327–360; Rubio-Mondéjar and Garrués-Irurzun, “Power in
Spain,” 858–879.
161. Pukall and Calabrò, “Internationalization of Family Firms,” 103–125.
162. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy,82–83.
163. Rosenberg, Perspectives on Technology.
1144 Hernández Barahona, San Román, and Gil-López
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
information: Department of Applied Economics, Structure and History, Faculty of Economics
and Business, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: aguegi-
Acknowledgment
We thank the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), Agencia Estatal de Investiga-
ción (AEI), and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) for funding through project PGC2018-093971-B-
I00. The authors are also grateful to José María Ortiz-Villajos, Elena Huergo, and Pedro Durá for their feedback on
an early version of the paper.
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Meliá
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
José Meliá
Sinisterra
1920 Oranges blossom Oranges traded after
the fruit completed
its maturation
Changing the process of
buying oranges: buying
oranges in blossom to
reduce their purchase cost
“When the orange tree was
in blossom, when a storm
could hit tomorrow and
leave you without
oranges, he bought the
oranges in blossom, so he
bought them very cheap…
He was 16–17 years old
and he changed the whole
theory of buying in the
market! And of course,
you had to do the same as
he did and there were
those who went
bankrupt.”
Interview with José Meliá
Goicoechea (September
16, 2015)
José Meliá
Sinisterra
1930 Cabins of the ships Cabins for the ship’s
owners when
traveling onboard.
Renting the cabins of the
ship’s owners for tourism
purposes
“One day it occurs to him to
ask the Germans to let him
sell the owner’s cabins,
because they were always
going empty (…) So, he
gets in touch with Bremen,
and they authorize him to
sell the owner’s cabin.
That was the beginning of
my father’s tourism
business.”
Interview with José Meliá
Goicoechea (September
16, 2015)
Appendix Bricolage actions of the four entrepreneurs
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(Continued)
Meliá
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
José Meliá
Sinisterra
1940 War trucks and
ambulances
Vehicles for military
uses
Converting the vehicles into
buses to offer excursions
for Viajes Meliá clients
“My father had the idea of
taking a couple of military
vans and transforming
them into buses—the
chatos—and they used
them to make trips to the
city, to go to Andalusia …
he started to create his
own travel structure, a
tourist one.”
Interview with José Meliá
Goicoechea (September
16, 2015)
José Meliá
Sinisterra
1940 Networks: political
contacts built
during the Civil
War
Political networks
built for military
purposes during
the Civil War
Using these contacts for
economic purposes to get
authorization to import
German buses (MAN
brand) after the war
“There my father used
General Hungary—who
adored him—not as a
scam, but to talk and tell
the ministers that this was
good for Spain ( …) Then
he gets them to authorize
them [truck imports] and
we can start importing
those marvelous buses.”
Interview with José Meliá
Goicoechea (September
16, 2015)
José Meliá
Sinisterra
1940 Networks: an agent
of the Neptune
company
Developing the
orange shipping
business before
the Civil War
Reusing the network agent
connection to create a
new tourism business and
expand it to Vienna after
the war
“When I arrived, the
Russians had left the place
in a mess, there were no
hotels and the ones there
were occupied by the
American, French … the
Allied military delegations.
And the guy who received
me, who was a former
representative of
Neptune, took me to a
house, which was a tower,
and on the top floor they
Interview with José Meliá
Goicoechea (September
16, 2015)
(Continued )
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(Continued)
Meliá
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
gave me a room. Well, I set
up the infrastructure.”
José Meliá
Sinisterra
1950 Networks: friends Social contacts Turning these social contacts
into stakeholders through
a system that exchanged
financing means for stake
(called “points”) in the
hotels
“‘I’m going to do this
business, it’s 10 million,
100 points. How many
points do you want to get
in? Well, with 5, 3, 4 … I
already have the 100, we
make the hotel.’ With a
letter we set up the hotel.
There was no stock
exchange, of course, so
with our friends we set up
the hotels. And that’s how
he did everything. And he
gave a board position to
the one who bought a
certain number of points.”
Interview with José Meliá
Goicoechea (September
16, 2015)
Francisco Meliá
Goicoechea
1960 Hotel rooms Renting rooms for
accommodation
Reusing hotel rooms to sell
them as real estate
property, therefore getting
financial means to build
the hotels—brought the
aparthotel concept to
Spain
“One of the important things
I did was also the creation
of Aparthotel S.A. in 1965.
I created it because I was
short of money, so I
thought of mixing real
estate with the hotel
business. Then I created
Aparthotel, which is a
system by which people,
through real estate
property, become
shareholders of the hotel.”
Interview with Francisco
Meliá Goicoechea
(September 23, 2015;
May 28, 2021)
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Barceló
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
Simón Barceló 1930 Chassis Supporting the
structure of
delivery trucks
Reusing the truck chassis for
creating a regular bus
transport service
“Those were times when
people moved mostly in
carriages or on the backs
of horses and mules, but
with this vehicle, the
truck, Barceló started a
regular public transport
service. Transporting
passengers, but also mail
and goods.”
Barceló Group, Barceló 75
años,p.64
Simón Barceló 1930 Waiting time of the
bus driver
Resting and waiting
for the
passengers
Reusing that time to offer a
package delivery service
“In combination with the
railroad service,
downtime at destination
points was used to pick up
and deliver parcels, and to
make the mail link with
the train.’
Barceló Group, Barceló 75
años,p.65
Simón Barceló 1940 Bar Providing catering
services
Turning the bar into a
complete bus station:
offering ticket sales,
catering, and waiting area
for passengers
“The bar served as a meeting
point for the departures
and arrivals of the buses,
and there Simon’s sons
and daughters, and other
relatives, helped to serve
the Felanitx people, but
also the travelers who got
out of the truck.”
Barceló Group, Barceló 75
años,p.73
(Continued )
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(Continued)
Barceló
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
Simón Barceló 1950 Vehicles Regular
passenger
transport
Reusing buses for creating a
new service, tourist
excursions (Autocares
Barceló)
“In 1951/1952 we began our
contact with tourism by
going on the usual
excursions of that time:
when cruise ships arrived,
we offered the passengers
a trip to know the island
(…) I was driving vehicles
and taking the first tourists
on those excursions.”
Interview with Gabriel
Barceló (September 6,
2013)
Simón Barceló 1960 Land Agricultural use Reusing the land to build in
Spain the resorts (called
"Pueblo" by Barceló): a
pioneer concept of all-
inclusive hotels in
exclusive natural
environments
“Product oriented to family
tourism. This complex
was built horizontally and
a larger square to house a
central building of
common services. It was
launched as a product
with multiple services,
from the hotel itself to a
shopping left.”
Barceló Group, Barceló 75
años,p.95
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Iberostar
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
Lorenzo Fluxá 1920 Networks:
friends
Social contact Turning the social contact
into a financial provider to
face business debts
“In 1928, when he took over
the business and saw the
heavy debts, Lorenzo had
to mortgage the factory
and resort to the help of a
neighbor and good friend,
Miquel Mir, who lent him
cash.”
Interview with Miguel Fluxá
Rosselló (March 20, 2013)
Lorenzo Fluxá 1950 Travel agency: Viajes
Iberia
Organizing travel Reusing the business of the
travel agency to access
foreign currency to import
raw material for the shoe-
making business
“His desire (…) was to
internationalize his shoe
company and to gain
access to foreign currency
that would facilitate the
acquisition of raw
materials.”
Román, Viajes y estrellas,
p. 67
Lorenzo Fluxá 1960 Networks: Swiss
friend
Social contact Reusing social contacts to
obtain foreign currency
abroad through a form of
barter to pay for Lorenzo
Fluxá’s studies abroad
“Lorenzo, the youngest of
the brothers, completed
his training in Switzerland
thanks to the ingenuity of
his father, who paid for
holidays in Majorca to a
Swiss friend so that the
latter, in turn, would cover
the expenses of his
children’s stays in the
Alpine country. In this
way, Fluxá obtained the
necessary foreign
currency, which was not
very accessible in those
years, to meet the costs of
training abroad.”
Román, Viajes y estrellas,
p. 44; Interview with
Lorenzo Fluxá Rosselló
(October 2, 2013)
(Continued )
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
(Continued)
Iberostar
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
Lorenzo Fluxá 1960 Land Poor-quality
agricultural land
Reusing the land to build
hotels in exclusive places
at a competitive price
“Curiously, the Arenal was
an area of no interest until
Majorca’s tourist boom:
Majorcans had always
valued the rural land
where it was possible to
grow crops, but the area
near the sea was
considered useless
because it was impossible
to use it for agricultural
purposes. This situation
changed in the 1960s and
the Hotel Flamingo was
one of the pioneers in
demonstrating this.”
Román, Viajes y estrellas,
p. 70
Miguel Fluxá 1970 Networks:
Competitors in the
Spanish travel
agency sector
Disputing market
share
Reusing the competitors to
jointly create a tour
operator: Club de
Vacaciones, the first
Spanish tour operator
“At the end of the sixties,
however, the change in
the economic situation
allowed some Spanish
travel agencies to start
negotiating their union to
create a Spanish-funded
tour operator. This is how
the first Spanish tour
operator, Club de
Vacaciones, came into
being in 1969, an initiative
of the Viajes Universal
agency on which the
airline Spantax and a
group of travel agencies
collaborated, including
Viajes Iberia.”
Román, Viajes y estrellas,
p. 109
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Riu
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
Juan Riu 1930 Truck Purchase,
transport, and sale
of fruit
Reusing the truck to build a
package delivery business
“My grandfather was a
greengrocer. He was from
Olot, a fairly large town in
the province of Girona. He
had to go to Barcelona
every day or every three
days to buy fruit to sell in
Olot. So he said, ‘Well,
since I’m going to
Barcelona, I’ll set up a
business as an errand
boy.’ What he did was that
from Olot to Barcelona he
would stop in every
village, pick up packages,
return them from
Barcelona, and alongside
the fruit business he was
an errand boy and he
owned a lorry.”
Interview with Carmen Riu
(February 26, 2016)
(Continued )
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
(Continued)
Riu
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
Juan Riu 1940 Networks: priest Social contact Reusing the social contact as
a political contact who
brings the import license
for buying a truck to
restart his transport
business after the Civil
War
“And he made him the
following proposal: ‘You
must have a "plug" with the
Franco regime (…) (There
was only one lorry factory
in Spain. He had tried to
get a truck and they made
him wait three years.) You
could certainly get a lorry
quicker. If you get me a
lorry within three months,
during the day I will use it
for my work and at night I
promise that for one year I
will transport food and
fruit for your school.’”
Interview with Carmen Riu
(February 26, 2016)
Juan Riu 1950 Networks: fellow
countryman
Social contact Reusing the social contact to
access the management of
a hotel in Venezuela
“But they found a Catalan
who had a rented hotel in a
city called Barquisimeto.
The Catalan said to them:
‘I’ll leave it to you if you
want to take it.’ And then
my grandfather left his job
at Chrysler and went to
Barquisimeto to run the
Interview with Carmen Riu
(February 26, 2016)
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
(Continued)
Riu
Entrepreneur Decade Resource
Original use of the
resource
Reuse of the resource
through creative action
for a new purpose Quotations Source
hotel with my father and
my grandmother.”
Juan Riu 1950 Honeymoon trip Personal journey Reusing the journey to
search for a foreign
partner in order to expand
the business network
“In 1954, my father’s
wedding trip was to tour
Europe. They took two
suitcases: one with
clothes and the other with
hotel brochures. And he
had previously contacted
a number of travel
agencies. (…) They went
to this agency, among
others, and in the travel
agency he signed a
contract for the whole
hotel.”
Interview with Carmen Riu
(February 26, 2016)
https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.28 Published online by Cambridge University Press
