A new hybrid model for chambers of commerce in Spain? Explaining the impact of European programs on the modernization of Barcelona Chamber of Commerce
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26485/SPE/2025/134/5Keywords:
chambers of commerce, business associations, compulsory membership, European funds, SpainAbstract
Background: Spanish chambers of commerce are in a period of transition from a public model towards a hybrid model of chambers. In the context of a financial crisis, both socialist and conservative governments promoted new rules that ended the obligation for companies to join local chambers and pay the mandatory fee. The previous literature points out that the introduction of new rules led to the growing participation of multinational companies in the governing bodies of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce at the state level. However, there has been no empirical analysis of how local chambers have adapted their structures and activities to the new legal framework after losing their main source of income (i.e., the mandatory fee).
Research purpose: This article analyzes the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce’s (BCC) annual budgets for the period 2013–2023. The budgetary dimension is of particular relevance for the transition towards a hybrid model of chambers since the 2014 law established that the provision of services to companies is the main source of financing for local chambers. Our article quantifies and analyzes the origin of BCC’s annual income, with the aim of identifying the relative weight of public funding, especially European funds
Methods: This article analyzes in a descriptive manner an original database of BCC’s annual budgets for the period 2013–2023, based on the audited reports that the chamber publishes on its website. We have also collected data on BCC’s participation in public programs at various levels.
Conclusions: Contrary to the spirit of the 2014 law, public funding represents almost half of BCC’s annual budget in the last years of the period analyzed. Although BCC has participated directly in open calls for European Funds over the years, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce has become an essential source of income for the local chambers. Spanish chambers are now much more dependent on public funding than in the years before the introduction of new rules.
Downloads
References
Baumgartner F.R., Berry J.M., Hojnacki M., Kimball D.C., Leech B., Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2009.
Behrens M., Helfen M., Small change, big impact? Organisational membership rules and the exit of employers’ associations from multiemployer bargaining in Germany, Human Resource Management Journal 2019/29 (1), pp. 51–66.
Bennett R.J., Explaining the Membership of Voluntary Local Business Associations: The Example of British Chambers of Commerce, Regional Studies 1998/32 (6), pp. 503–514.
Bennett R.J., The Logic of Local Business Associations: An Analysis of Voluntary Chambers of Commerce, Journal of Public Policy 1995/15 (3), pp. 251–279.
Bennett R.J., Ramsden M., The Contribution of Business Associations to SMEs: Strategy, Bundling or Reassurance?, International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 2007/25, pp. 49–76.
Bernhagen P., Chambers of Commerce as Political Actors: Theoretical Perspectives on Their Organisation and Influence, in: D. Sack (ed.), Chambers of Commerce in Europe. Selfgovernance and institutional change, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021.
Bonet J.L., La refundación del Sistema Cameral Español y la creación de la Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria, Servicios y Navegación de España: la Ley 4/2014 de 1 de abril, Colección Real Academia Europea de Doctores, 2022.
Braendle U., Rahdari A.H., Dehkordi H.F., Promoting Responsible Business Practices: A Case of Chambers of Commerce, Revista Internacional de Organizaciones 2016/16 (6), pp. 41–58.
Carnevali F., Social capital and trade associations in America, C. 1860–1914: A microhistory approach, The Economic History Review 2011/64 (3), pp. 905–928.
Coen D., The evolution of the large firm as a political actor in the European Union, Journal of European Public Policy 1997/4 (1), pp. 91–108.
Coen D., Katsaitis A., Vannoni M., Business lobbying in the European Union, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2021.
Crawford B., The Historical and Cultural Construction of Legitimated Interests: The Rise of American Chambers of Commerce, Management & Organizational History 2015/10 (3–4), pp. 230–250.
Dawley D.D., Stephens R.D., Stephens D.B., Dimensionality of Organizational Commitment in Volunteer Workers: Chamber of Commerce Board Members and Role Fulfillment, Journal of Vocational Behavior 2005/67, pp. 511–525.
Demougin Ph., Gooberman L., Hauptmeier M., Heery E., Employer organisations transformed, Human Resource Management Journal 2019/29 (1), pp. 1–16.
Druelle-Korn C., The Great War: Matrix of the International Chamber of Commerce, a fortunate business League of Nations, in: A. Smith, S. Mollan, K.D. Tennent (eds.), The impact of the First World War on international business, Routledge, London 2016.
Eichenberger P., Rollings N., Marina Schaufelbuehl J., The brokers of globalization: Towards a history of business associations in the international arena, Business History 2023/65 (2), pp. 217–234.
Fitzgerald R., The rise of the global company: Multinationals and the making of the modern world, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015.
Fraboulet D. Quand les patrons s’organisent. Stratégies et pratiques de l’Union des Industries Métallurgiques et Minières 1901–1950. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2007.
Fraboulet D., Druelle Korn C., Vernus P. (eds.), Genèse des organisations patronales en Europe: Xixe-Xxe siècles, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2012.
García de Enterría E., Las Cámaras Oficiales de Comercio, Industria y Navegación ante el Derecho, Revista de Administración Pública 1996/139, pp. 153–170.
Gorordo J.M., Cámaras Oficiales de Comercio, Industria y Navegación, ed. Civitas, Madrid 2005.
Greenwood J., Jacek H. (eds.), Organized business and the new global order, Macmillan & St. Martin’s Press, 2010.
Hyman R., The role of government in industrial relations, in: J. Heyes, L. Rychly (eds.), Labour administration in uncertain times, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2013.
Jones G., Firms and global capitalism, in: L. Neal, J.G. Williamson (eds.), The Cambridge history of capitalism. Volume 2. The spread of capitalism: From 1848 to the present, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014.
Jouve B., Local Development and Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Case of Lyon, Sociologie du travail 2002/44 (4), pp. 521–540.
Kenworthy L., Quantitative Indicators of Corporatism, International Journal of Sociology 2003/33 (3), pp. 10–44.
Lemercier C., La Chambre de Commerce de Paris, acteur indispensable de la construction des normes économiques (première moitié du Xixe siècle), Genèses 2003/50 (1), pp. 50–70.
Lowery D., Gray V., Kirkland J., Harden J.J., Generalist Interest Organizations and Interest System Density: A Test of the Competitive Exclusion Hypothesis, Social Science Quarterly 2012/93 (1), pp. 21–41.
Maennig W., Ölschläger M., Schmidt-Trenz H.J., Organisations and Regional Innovative Capability: The Case of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Germany, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2015/33 (4), pp. 811–827.
Martin C.J., Swank D., The political construction of business interests: Coordination, growth and equality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012.
Martín-Retortillo S., Funciones de las Cámaras de Comercio, Industria y Navegación, Revista Española de Derecho Administrativo 1996/90, pp. 185–195.
Medina I., Are Business Associations Involved in Regional Politics? Evidence from Spain and the United Kingdom, European Urban and Regional Studies 2014/6, pp. 1–17.
Medina I., Molins J.M., Institutional Change in Spanish Chambers of Commerce, in: D. Sack (ed.), Chambers of Commerce in Europe. Self-governance and institutional change, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021.
Michel H. (ed.), Représenter le patronat européen. Formes d’organisation patronale et mode d’action européenne, Peter Lang, Brussels 2013.
Moguen-Toursel M. (ed.), Stratégies d’entreprise et action publique dans l’Europe intégrée (1950–1980)/Firm strategies and public policy in integrated Europe (1950–1980), Peter Lang, Brussels 2007.
Molins J.M., Chambers of Commerce as Interest Groups, ICPS Working Paper 8, Barcelona 1989.
Ogilvie S., Institutions and European trade: Merchant guilds, 1000–1800, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011.
Ogilvie S., The European guilds: An economic analysis, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2019.
Rollings N., Business Eurofederations and European integration from the Second World War to the 1970s, in: D. Fraboulet, A.M. Locatelli, P. Tedeschi (eds.), Historical and international comparison of business interest associations (19th–20th centuries), Peter Lang, Brussels 2013.
Ronit K., Organized business and global public policy: Administration, participation, and regulation, in: D. Stone, K. Moloney (eds.), The Oxford handbook of global policy and transnational administration, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2019.
Rosengarten M., Holtfrerich C.-L., Economic policy positions and influence of the International Chamber of Commerce, in: H. James (ed.), The interwar depression in an international context. Oldenburg, Munich 2002.
Sack D., European Chambers of Commerce in Comparison. An Introduction, in: D. Sack (ed.), Chambers of Commerce in Europe. Self-governance and institutional change, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021.
Sack D., Quittkat Ch., Institutional Change in the French Chambers of Commerce, in: D. Sack (ed.), Chambers of Commerce in Europe. Self-governance and institutional change, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021.
Schmitter P.C., Still the century of corporatism?, The Review of Politics 1974/36 (1), pp. 85–131.
Schmitter P.C., Streeck W., The organization of business interests: Studying the associative action of business in advance industrial societies, MPIfG Discussion Paper, No 99/1, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln 1999.
Schneider V., Global economic governance by private actors: The International Chamber of Commerce, in: J. Greenwood, H. Jacek (eds.), Organized business and the new global order, Macmillan & St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Valcárcel A., Las Cámaras Oficiales de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de España, ed. Maribel, Madrid 1962.
Waters S., Chambers of Commerce and Local Development in France: Problems and Constraints, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 1998/16 (5), pp. 591–604.
Zachar P.K., Institutional Changes to Chambers of Industry and Commerce in Hungary after the Transition of 1989/1990, in: D. Sack (ed.), Chambers of Commerce in Europe. Selfgovernance and institutional change, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021.
Zallenberg U.E., Institutional change in Austrian Economic Chambers, in: D. Sack (ed.), Chambers of Commerce in Europe. Self-governance and institutional change, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Prawno-Ekonomiczne
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
