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The success of the Australian wine industry is well documented. However, there have been few comparative studies of the reasons for this success as compared to Australia's main competitors. Most of the anecdotal evidence and trade publications focus on “value for money” and fruit‐driven wines, without looking at how the Australian wine businesses operate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the external environment in France and Australia as one of the drivers for Australian wine sector success.

In‐depth interviews with two French and two Australian wineries and a review of the literature led to a series of hypotheses about the role of market orientation, strategic orientation, innovative and entrepreneurial environment orientation, constraining legislation, industry infrastructure usage, industry plan support, and interorganizational collaboration as factors differentiating the two countries. An online survey of wineries in the two countries resulted in a sample of 82 French and 63 Australian responses. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences between Australian wineries as compared to the French.

Australian wineries rated themselves higher in market orientation, growth strategy, export proactiveness, perceived innovative environment, perceived entrepreneurial environment, more interorganizational collaboration, and less perceived constraining legislation.

These results not only provide some basis for Australia's success in wine exporting, but also add to the literature on the effect of the external environment on business performance.

Wine exporting countries can use the results to help shape policy for creating a more conducive environment for exporting wine.

This paper presents the findings of a study of the marketing strategies and headquarters‐subsidiary relationship of 186 German and 113 French subsidiaries operating in the UK. German companies were found to pursue market‐focused strategies with an emphasis on product quality. Meanwhile, their French counterparts adopted a more short‐term orientation with a stronger emphasis on cost‐related strategies. Both sets of companies displayed a high degree of ethnocentricity towards the UK market with regard to strategic and product‐related issues. However, high levels of autonomy were observed in French and German subsidiaries in other areas of marketing decision making. Some differences by industry sector were observed, with service organisations more likely to adapt their product/service offering to meet the needs of UK customers. Chemical and related companies were observed to have the highest level of autonomy with regard to marketing decision making.

This paper sheds light on an apparent paradox: managers continue to accept offers of international assignments even though they tend to view them as a risky career move. Based on a review of the literature and a survey of expatriate managers of 20 French and 30 German companies on assignment in 59 countries, the paper examines the nature of the expatriate career concept, the career development implications of international assignments, and the effectiveness of corporate expatriate career management and repatriation systems. Most of the research on the career implications of international assignments has been conducted using the US samples of expatriates. By exploring expatriate career issues in a cross‐national sample of French and German expatriates, this study seeks to yield new and significant insights into whether the emerging concept of boundaryless careers is beginning to take hold in countries other than the US, and whether there are cross‐national differences in the nature of the expatriate career concept. The findings show that many expatriates are frustrated with how their companies manage their international assignments, especially the long‐range planning of their repatriation. However, there are clear differences between the French and German expatriates in terms of repatriation concerns. Despite widespread dissatisfaction in both groups, the German expatriates seem relatively nonchalant regarding their repatriation. This finding can be explained by the fact that the German expatriates are more willing to leave their companies upon return than their French counterparts, thus showing strong evidence of a “boundaryless career” orientation. An important finding is that companies that fail to take an integrated approach to international assignments and do not have effective international career development and repatriation systems, tend to end up with highly dissatisfied managers who, depending on their nationalities, may be quite willing to leave their companies upon repatriation.

The purpose of this paper is to study the case of one French multinational company which has undergone a process of radical restructuring and “internationalization” because of acquisitions of Anglo‐Saxon multinational companies. It examines how the organizational changes influenced the company's approach to the international human resource management (IHRM).

The methodology of this research is the single case study. Sources of evidences are direct participation and observation, interviews with top managers, and documentation.

The results show that the ethnocentric model, when French managers were placed on the top of the foreign subsidiaries, becomes non‐efficient in the company which doubled its size and the geographical spread of its activities. It is argued that the forces of globalization constrained this multinational company to change from an ethnocentric approach to a geocentric approach to its IHRM.

The case demonstrates that national and organizational cultures are important contextual factors which influence the company's approach to its IHRM. The paper outlines the interconnectedness of globalization and the geocentric approach to the IHRM.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether characteristics of French organizations can be found in the Airbus Group, ancient European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) Group, and how these characteristics have evolved over time in comparison to German ones.

This article presents an in-depth case study by using a contextual approach, considering influential factors which are likely to influence the evolution of organizations.

The analysis shows that the Airbus Group reflects characteristics of French organizations: the importance of strategy, the principle of honour, centralization of decision and power, the role of the state in the capital and its influence via professional networks of its elite coming from the Grandes Ecoles. These findings confirm a relative continuity of national peculiarities over time. The recent evolution of the company also highlights the German influence, notably in terms of shares and management positions.

The case study demonstrates that the Airbus Group has become a multinational company where contextual elements and organizational structures regulate intercultural relationships of interests, influence and power.

Five contextual factors are proposed, which allow to understand and structure the peculiarities of French organizations, in comparison to German ones as well as power distribution within the Airbus Group.

This study seeks to contribute to the international literature by researching the factors influencing audit fees in France, where law requires a joint auditing process involving two separate auditors for firms that publish consolidated financial statements.

Since, 2003, the disclosure of audit fees has been compulsory in France, but numerous firms decided to voluntarily disclose their audit fees for the year 2002. An attempt is made here to elucidate the amount spent on audit fees in 2002 in a sample of 127 French (non‐financial) firms.

The main finding is that audit fees depend on firm size, firm risk, and the presence of two of the Big Four firms. When two Big Four firms audit company accounts, the fees charged (adjusted for company size) are significantly lower in comparison with those paid in the other cases. These results appear not to have been influenced by the share of fees paid by the companies to the main auditor.

This study is original because the French law requires a joint auditing process involving two separate auditors.

This paper aims to demonstrate that state shareholders are confronted with contradictory logics leading to institutional contradictions that activist shareholders can exploit. The competing logics of the state as shareholder and their impact on corporate governance and shareholder activism offer fertile grounds for research advances in Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs).

Through an extensive literature review of state ownership, institutional contradictions and shareholder activism, this paper analyzes two case studies involving the French State as shareholder.

In the French context, these two cases illustrate how institutional contradictions result in opportunities for shareholder activism. By focusing on the institutional contradictions of the state shareholder, this investigation suggests a need for experimental research to observe how shareholder activists adapt to each institutional change in CMEs. This experimentation can help policymakers to avoid creating additional conditions that shareholder activists can exploit.

This focuses only on France and its state shareholdings. To generalize results, studies of other CMEs and state shareholders are needed.

Policymakers should consider all legislative proposals for their potential to deviate from corporate governance practice by experimenting with them in a laboratory setting. Shareholder activists can compare state shareholders’ actions against the state’s legislation to emphasize institutional contradictions that counter minority shareholders’ rights.

This research is the first to analyze how the state as shareholder can exploit its competing logics to resist against shareholder activism and support management or to become itself a shareholder activist.

In France, no other specialist business function is so predominantly marked by culture as HRM. In France, Cartesian patterns of analytical thinking, the passion for anti‐authoritarian individualism, and the reduction of disorder through legislation and bureaucracy influence the company′s sociocultural environments, in particular through the education system, the status of executives, and the role of trade unionism. Emphasis is put on the concept of ubiquity in HRM; it is at the intersection of all the other corporate functions and its role is shared with the line managers at the technical, relational and strategic level. Future perspectives, like the introduction of new technologies, may impose a new ethical dimension for HRM against the “gospel of efficiency”.

This paper aims to determine which factors are the most important for French wine small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to focus on to improve their export performance. French wine companies, mostly SMEs are acting in a market where being internationally competitive is essential. This is becoming increasingly challenging because of the strong growth of New World wines in international markets. Moreover, they have to face the saturation of their domestic market compounded by a decline in per capita consumption domestically. Having a high export performance could help them be more competitive.

The first step to reach this goal is reviewing the existing literature on export performance determinants in SMEs and more particularly in the wine industry. A theoretical model is built and used to structure an empirical analysis of the determinants of the export performance of French wine SMEs.

Export performance determinants can be theoretically divided into internal, external and strategy‐related determinants. Empirical analysis indicates that in the French wine industry, business partnerships, innovation, a greater size and an effective export commitment are linked to higher levels of export performance.

This research reveals that financial determinants of export performance are missing in the literature. Besides, duplicating the study with another export performance determinant is necessary to confirm the validity of the results.

This article brings an overall theoretical approach to export performance determinants in SMEs. Moreover, it provides a basis for understanding and then improving the viability of French wine companies through export development.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the value creation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in mature and emerging markets.

The empirical study is based on a sample of 285 cross-border M&As announced between 2010 and 2012 and completed by companies of the French SBF 120 index in 54 countries.

The statistical analysis shows how financial markets react before and after the announcement of M&As. The obtained findings highlight significant differences: the reaction of financial markets before the announcement is moderately positive for M&As in mature economies, but negative for those in emerging economies; their reaction after the announcement is clearly positive for M&As in mature markets and moderately positive for those in emerging markets.

Future studies on M&A value creation should differentiate mature and emerging economies and adopt a more in-depth classification of target countries.

This research emphasizes the necessity to consider country-specific factors for M&A value creation.

The empirical study is based on a sample of French acquirers, who account for 3 percent of the volume and value of M&As in the world and whose operations are rarely studied in the literature. The authors compare the reaction of financial markets before and after the announcement of M&As conducted in mature and emerging economies.