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1 – 10 of over 27000Mary Vigier and Michael Bryant
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual and linguistic challenges that French business schools face when preparing for international accreditation and to shed light…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual and linguistic challenges that French business schools face when preparing for international accreditation and to shed light on the different ways in which experts facilitate these accreditation processes, particularly with respect to how they capitalize on their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning competences.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors interviewed 12 key players at four business schools in France engaged in international accreditations and in three specific categories: senior management, tenured faculty and administrative staff. The interview-based case study design used semi-structured questions and an insider researcher approach to study an underexplored sector of analysis.
Findings
The findings suggest that French business schools have been particularly impacted by the colonizing effects of English as the mandatory language of the international accreditation bodies espousing a basically Anglophone higher education philosophy. Consequently, schools engage external experts for their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning expertise to facilitate accreditation processes.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to language-sensitive research through a critical perspective on marginalization within French business schools due to the use of English as the mandatory lingua franca of international accreditation processes and due to the underlying higher-education philosophy from the Anglophone academic sphere within these processes. As a result, French business schools resort to external experts to mediate their knowledge and competency gaps.
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The purpose of this paper is to position the business apprenticeship model (a work-based learning model where student managers alternate between academic and workplace learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to position the business apprenticeship model (a work-based learning model where student managers alternate between academic and workplace learning) at a political, institutional and student level in order to explain how it fits within the French business education landscape and how it is considered as a viable business model in management education.
Design/methodology/approach
Business apprenticeship is analysed through the prism of Osterwalder and Pigneur’s (2010) Business Model Canvas to evaluate the nine dimensions of the business model: customer segments, value proposition, customer channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners and cost structure.
Findings
Two major advantages of the model are identified, namely, the potential for widening participation and affordability and three concerns are outlined: the corporate vision of the apprentice, the recent governmental reforms on funding this model, and the potential synergies between theory and practice.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is useful for all those who wish to develop an apprenticeship track within their business schools and for employers who are considering the development of apprenticeship partnerships with business schools.
Originality/value
This paper provides insight into business apprenticeship as a work-based learning model.
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Nabyla Daidj and Charles Egert
The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the evolution in business models (BM) of one key player (Netflix) in the French online streaming video services market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the evolution in business models (BM) of one key player (Netflix) in the French online streaming video services market.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a qualitative approach (Netflix case study based on secondary data) to reduce the gap between theory and business practice.
Findings
Through technological convergence, the movie and video industry has seen dramatic changes in the means of consumption, forcing the traditional media players to evolve and adapt their strategy and BM to face new entrants (mainly IT companies). Coopetitive practices have been developed in spite of a fierce competition in the French market with impact on BM. Netflix is representative of this evolution.
Research limitations/implications
This qualitative research is based on a case study. The results of a single case study cannot be used to make generalizations. Certainly, this paper represents only a first step. Further research is required in this field.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is to expand the understanding of BMs by including various strategic and marketing perspectives and analyze the impact of coopetitive practices on the BM of one key player: Netflix.
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Stephanie Hurt and Marcus Hurt
A Confrontation of Mindsets: French Retailers Operating in Poland traces the history of French retailers setting up operations in Poland in the mid 90s. The case, however, is set…
Abstract
A Confrontation of Mindsets: French Retailers Operating in Poland traces the history of French retailers setting up operations in Poland in the mid 90s. The case, however, is set in 2006 when a top retailing executive recalls the important watershed period of 1996-97 when the expatriate managers in charge of setting up the first hypermarkets encountered great difficulties with their new Polish recruits. The managers were not succeeding in transferring the practices and routines that were an essential part of their business model on the home market in France: their Polish employees displayed work attitudes that were the contrary of the initiative and responsibility for enlarged jobs that characterized employees back home. This situation called into question the very viability of their business model in Poland. The case poses very clearly the question of what actions the expatriate managers should decide to take to ensure the store launchings in Poland and future growth. The issues raised concern global versus multi-domestic internationalization strategies, business models, paradigms, corporate culture, management of expats, knowledge transfer and the link between strategic implementation and organizational behavior.
Carine Deslée and Oussama Ammar
Many barriers prevent firms from changing their business models. Inertia, as it accumulates over time, transforms into organizational routines that doom change; however, it can…
Abstract
Purpose
Many barriers prevent firms from changing their business models. Inertia, as it accumulates over time, transforms into organizational routines that doom change; however, it can also be a source of organizational flexibility. How does a business model evolve in interaction with organizational routines? This paper aims to study the interactions between forms of participative innovation (PI) and existing business models.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploratory approach includes interviews, participant and non-participant observations and archive analysis. It adapts an existing framework, based on the notion of scripts, to the evolutionary dynamic of organizational routines at the French railway company SNCF. The analysis of a set of contextual elements clarifies events over time and interactions between PI and the company’s business model.
Findings
The empirical insights indicate how existing routines can help reinvent business models. Business model components evolve along the transformation phases of PI. The case reveals co-evolutionary dynamics: evolution of the organizational routine from bureaucratic suggestion, to structured innovation, to PI leads to the transformation of the business model from functionalist, to customer-centric, to open business model.
Practical implications
Firm managers can think more proactively about how to reinvent established business models by innovating their existing routines, according to the position and role of routines, shifting from sources of rigidity and inertia to levers for innovation and change.
Originality/value
The business model concept serves as a prism of analysis for organizational routines. Organizational routines are sources of flexibility, strategic renewal and business model reinvention.
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In their well-known contribution to the “varieties of capitalism” debate, Peter Hall and David Soskice (2001, Ch. 1) highlight the distinction between a “coordinated market…
Abstract
In their well-known contribution to the “varieties of capitalism” debate, Peter Hall and David Soskice (2001, Ch. 1) highlight the distinction between a “coordinated market economy” as exemplified by Germany and a “liberal market economy” as exemplified by the United States. Under the heading, “Liberal Market Economies: The American Case”, Hall and Soskice (2001, p. 27), argue:Liberal market economies can secure levels of overall economic performance as high as those of coordinated market economies, but they do so quite differently. In LMEs, firms rely more heavily on market relations to resolve the coordination problems that firms in CMEs address more often via forms of non-market coordination that entail collaboration and strategic interaction. In each of the major spheres of firm endeavor, competitive markets are more robust and there is less institutional support for non-market forms of coordination.
Mairi Maclean and Charles Harvey
The purpose of this study is to explore some of the distinctive features of organizing and organization in France which set it apart from organization in other nations, and which…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore some of the distinctive features of organizing and organization in France which set it apart from organization in other nations, and which are fundamental to its modus operandi. In particular, this article is concerned with elite connectivity and concerted action by elite “connectors”.
Design/methodology/approach
The research underpinning this article stems from a cross-national comparative project on business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK. This has three dimensions, being quantitative, qualitative and case study-based. Concerted action by the ruling elite is explored through two illustrative vignettes: the ousting from office of Jean-Marie Messier and State-sponsored expansion as pursued by EDF. Both examples shed light on the French business elite’s response to globalization and the development of international business.
Findings
The paper finds elite cohesion to be achieved quite differently in the two countries. In addition, it finds that the ties that bind French connectors tend to be strong and institutionally based.
Practical implications
The case of EDF suggests that the most ambitious of State-sponsored strategies can also be the most successful. It implies that elite ideologies in France have deviated relatively little from sentiments expressed by Rousseau and de Gaulle concerning the primacy of the national interest and the conviction that firms can serve as an (expansionist) instrument of the nation. The Messier case illuminates the pattern of close relationships among the French business elite. It demonstrates how a strategy of expansion may come unstuck when it is not grounded in the customary modes of business regulation.
Originality/value
This research confirms a slight preference on the part of the French business elite for more homogenous ties. Against this, the paper demonstrates that a significant proportion of the French elite act as boundary spanners, brokering relationships with others from more distant parts of the wider network. The integration of the French elite in the Eurozone has potentially favored bridge-building relationships and weakened national embeddedness. This may contribute to the decline of indigenous interlocks, while promoting the further internationalization of top management teams. The implications of this for organizational strategy, firm survival and economic performance form an agenda for future research.
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The purpose of this paper is to cover the emergence, history, and development of French business schools. It is a reflection on organizational tensions, more particularly within…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to cover the emergence, history, and development of French business schools. It is a reflection on organizational tensions, more particularly within the Grandes Ecoles system, that the challenge of research has created following the schools internationalization of the last 20 years.
Design/methodology/approach
Institutional theory, social dynamics, and history provide the frame of analysis.
Findings
Internationalization of the French business schools context has transformed the rules of the game. Ability to produce international quality publications has become a competitive necessity to attract faculty and students. Research is now a priority to gain international credibility, hire new faculty and perform successfully in the accreditation process. The shift from teaching institutions to international and research‐orientated business schools has created tensions and new challenges that need to be met.
Originality/value
The paper provides an historical account of the French business schools evolution and of their new research imperative. It stresses the governance and strategic issues this new imperative creates.
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Yann Carin, Cyprien Desquennes, Lukas Jaworski and Wladimir Andreff
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic effects of Covid-19 on French men's professional basketball club championships. Three research questions are raised: What are…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic effects of Covid-19 on French men's professional basketball club championships. Three research questions are raised: What are the characteristics of the economic model of French men's professional basketball? Has this economic model changed over the 2008/2009 to 2018/2019 period? What are the economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis on the finance of French men's professional basketball clubs?
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on a privileged access to the financial data of professional clubs in the two top-tier divisions (456 observations: 222 in Pro A/Jeep Elite and 234 in Pro B), this research focuses on economic models of French men's professional basketball clubs. The breakdown of revenues, expenses and financial performance is examined over the 2008/2009 to 2018/2019 period. The short-term economic effects of Covid-19 are measured over the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons.
Findings
The Covid-19 crisis, at least in the short term (2019/2020 season), has affected revenues and expenses. With the closedown of the championship, two out of three main revenue sources have significantly decreased, while two main expense sources have decreased as well. The net incomes of Jeep Elite and Pro B clubs are in the black contrasting with the 2018/2019 season (pre-Covid) owing to clubs having benefited from governmental and federal measures and a stronger support from local authorities and their shareholders.
Practical implications
Given the financial difficulties that clubs would have faced without governmental support, the federation and leagues would be well advised to develop a real crisis management competence within professional clubs. Owners of French professional men’s basketball clubs must increasingly adopt product diversification strategies to be better prepared for future crises.
Originality/value
Recent research on the economic effects of Covid-19 has focused on professional and amateur football. To the best of our knowledge, one does not avail detailed research on the potential effects of a health crisis fought with containment measures on professional basketball clubs. French professional basketball deserves to be studied because it has the third largest professional league revenue (behind football and rugby) and it is the second most practiced sport in France. Its sources of finance, which are different from those witnessed in football and rugby, also make it an appropriate subject for study.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
By engaging in innovation and spreading it throughout an organization, an existing routine really can help firms to reinvent their business models.
Practical implications
The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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