Analysis of the concept of industrial foundations in the South of Europe

Abstract

Industrial Foundations are foundations which ownbusiness companies (Thomsen, 2012),and theseare very common in the NorthernEurope.Foundations areperceivedaslong-term shareholders,thus,this modelarisesas a sustainable and rationalsolution to avoid short-termism.This thesiscontributes to the existing literature by exploringthe application of this type of ownership in the SouthernEurope, namely in Portugal and Spain. In Portugal, there are some examples of charitable industrial foundations with small dimension, whereas in Spain the model and its benefits havebeen, recently, recognized and adopted bylarge corporates, nonetheless, still existin a small amount.