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This paper aims to integrate research on KM with the effectuation approach. This paper will add to the understanding of effectuation as a KM tool in the context of social entrepreneurial networks. Although researchers agree that the lack of resources is a structural point for the context of social entrepreneurship and that knowledge is crucial in social entrepreneurship, only few studies deal with trying to understand how resources and knowledge are obtained, transformed and managed. An effectual approach seems to be particularly appropriate to work on this subject.

A literature review leads to a theoretical model that is tested in a single-case study of a French entrepreneurial project.

The empirical study not only shows the legitimacy of using an effectual approach but also puts forward three concepts that enable a better understanding of the access to resources and knowledge and their use in the context of social entrepreneurship. This study contributes to the knowledge management literature in identifying the process of gathering and sharing external resources and knowledge through an effectual process led by the entrepreneur and by the network.

The results complement the extant KM literature on the following points: identify the cumulative and absorptive process of knowledge from the network, contributing to the question of KM for growth and corporate entrepreneurship; answer to the claim from Durst and Runar Edvardsson (2012) to develop a greater understanding of knowledge identification, storage and utilization in small businesses; add to the topics of knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer and knowledge creation; and show that stages of creating, identifying, sharing and absorbing knowledge from/with the network are embedded in an effectual approach.

The lack of resources should not lead the entrepreneur to a dead end, but rather invite him/her to better raise following questions: Who can help me to get the missing resource? How could I develop the project without these resources and knowledge? The entrepreneur is invited to search more flexibility in the making of the project, and to seek more support from the network. A second important implication is a guideline that can be followed by business incubators to give better advice and guidance to social entrepreneurs.

The paper links effectuation, KM and social entrepreneurship literatures. The identification of the role of the network in knowledge creation, identification and sharing is valuable for both researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a company reaches organizational ambidexterity during a merger process. Organizational ambidexterity refers to the proactive adaptations of an organization to simultaneously explore and exploit.

The paper presents a longitudinal case study of a public-private merger of two listed French companies. The data were collected from participant observation, interviews and archival documentation over two years.

The balance between autonomy and control by the parent companies evolves during the post-merger integration. The findings reveal that there was no concordance between the oscillations between autonomy and control on the part of the parent companies and the new organization’s exploration/exploitation strategies. However, the progressive evolution of control and autonomy from the parent companies engendered organizational ambidexterity during the third phase integration.

The study adds insight into how organizations can develop ways to manage organizational ambidexterity dynamics by employing temporal mechanisms, referring to an organization’s shifting sequentially between exploration and exploitation. The case highlights how temporal switching between exploration and exploitation occurs to ultimately enable ambidexterity.

Although organizational ambidexterity is recognized as a key element for post-merger integration, how it is achieved over the course of the merger process has received little attention. The study highlights that in the case of public-private mergers, the parent companies influence exploration and/or exploitation strategies. The paper adds insights on whether exploration and exploitation can be differentiated over time and whether exploration and exploitation can be reconciled at the same time.

This paper aims to examine post-merger integration (PMI) through the lens of paradox to determine how paradoxes contribute to successful integration. Although PMI has been identified as crucial to understand merger success or failure, the literature on PMI drivers remains inconclusive.

Drawing on the theory of paradox and two key elements of PMI, strategic interdependency (SI) and organizational autonomy (OA), the authors describe the merger of two listed French companies using longitudinal data.

The authors identify how the paradox between OA and SI was triggered and fostered PMI success by leading to symbiotic integration. They also show that two capabilities were central in helping the paradox to evolve: preserving the specificities of the organizations and pooling their respective capabilities. These capabilities result from basic decisions and actions during the integration implementation, such as highlighting the expertise of the target firm, refocusing the core activity while valorizing each company’s expertise, clarifying the identity of the new organization on the market and enhancing joint piloting and transferring both general management capacity and functional abilities during the reorganization period.

The authors offer several useful insights for managers trying to manage paradoxical tension throughout the merger process. This study encourages managers to embrace inconsistencies as they make decisions and to shift to dynamic decision-making as a way to adapt to complex contexts.

This study adopts a global and inclusive approach to focus on OA and SI and flesh out a picture of the integration process. It proposes a dynamic process model to conceptualize the stage-wise nature of the PMI process by highlighting the interrelations between OA and SI dynamics.

Rapid growth constitutes both a theoretical and an economic issue. Thanks to a comparative study of five high growth small and medium sized enterprises located in Rhône-Alp and Provence (France), the authors propose a processual analysis of high growth trajectories. The purpose of this paper is to identify trajectories and tools implicated in the construction and maintenance of a high growth trajectory.

The contribution is a comparative, qualitative study of five medium size companies in France that have experienced growth of more than 20 percent annually for at least four years. This study is based on 25 semi-directive interviews with company managers.

First, high growth is a result of the psychological state of the company leader. Second, high growth is a manifestation of a secure enterprise geographically based where the company originated. This, however, implies discomfort once high growth occurs when physical expansion obliges moving to unfamiliar locations. Finally, in companies with high growth trajectories, support functions develop relatively late.

The results corroborate certain previously presented findings and bring forth new conclusions particularly concerning the place of the leader, the existence of thresholds and the relative homogeneity of trajectories.