David W. Versailles

CSR communications strategies through social media and influence on e-reputation

Purpose – Publics are becoming responsible customers that urge firms to improve society. By using social media, corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions could influence organization’s commitment and e-reputation. The purpose of this paper is to look at the influence on e-reputation of communication strategies (i.e. corporate ability and CSR) on social media. Design/methodology/approach – Four international companies (Danone, Renault, Orange and BNP Paribas) were studied and a content analysis was performed: Leximancer for the social media content (between 25 and 50 pages for each company) on a six-month period; and Social Mention for the measurement of e-reputation. Findings – Results show that there is a link between CSR communication strategies and e-reputation. More precisely, by using a corporate ability strategy (focus on product quality or innovation R & D), a company can increase its e-reputation better than on a common CSR communication strategy. Research limitations/implications – This study is based on only four companies (from four different industries) and would profit from a larger base for analysis. Second, the content the authors analyzed was generated by the company on their own social media. Originality/value – This exploratory study is one of the first to look at the influence of CSR communication strategies on e-reputation and tries to see how companies’ action on social media can change the way they are perceived by their customers. It completes the current literature by defining how CSR communications strategies should be declined for in order to influence customers.

Dual-use as Knowledge-Oriented Policy: France during the 1990-2000s

This contribution aims at demonstrating that dual-use policies represent now a dimension central to military R&D policies and should not be understood only as a transfer mechanism between the civilian and the military. The paper investigates the concept of dual-use policies in the framework of Knowledge-Oriented Policies (KOP). Il will elaborate on the conditions of the emergence and development of dual-use policies. From a conceptual perspective, it will point out the difficulty associated with sequential and linear interpretations of innovation processes associated with armaments programmes. The main important critic developed in this contribution relates to the simplistic view associated with armaments life cycle, which hardly accounts for the complexity of exchanges and the reality of decision-making in military R&D.

Knowledge Transfers And R&D Management: An Inquiry Into The Problem Of Transatlantic Complementarities

Innovation is not simply a body of practice but also a body of behaviors, a complex frameset of interactions, learning processes and co‐evolution between actors and institutions. This paper elaborates on the opposition between cooperative‐learning and competitive‐learning situations and on three knowledge levels in technology diffusion: technical, systemic and strategic. It inquires into some aspects of transatlantic cooperation from the perspectives drawn by knowledge‐based analyses of R&D management. Illustrations are drawn from defense aeronautics (the JSF F‐35 fighter jet and the F/A 18 fighter attack jet). The paper stresses the importance of the emergence of a ‘big picture’ in S&T policies and delineates the strategies associated with knowledge transfers in international cooperation among the participants (industry and state) in the programs. *Ideas developed in this article do not commit either the French Ministry of Defence or the French Air Force.

Towards a Reinterpretation of Information Communication Technologies' Impact on Command and Control*

Taylor and Francis LtdFDEF_A_233795.sgm10.1080/14702430701339013Defence Studies1470-2436 (print)/1743-9698 (online)Original Article2007Taylor & Francis72000000June 2007Lieutenant-colonel Dr DavidVersaillesdversailles@cr-ea.netThe implementation of information and communication technologies(ICTs) impacts the distribution of responsibility in the command andcontrol (C2) chain. In some cases the introduction of new technologies mayfavour centralization; in others, they represent the source of new forms ofdelegation and decentralization. The various levels of the hierarchy may ormany not take better decisions because they gain access to detailed dataabout the tactical situation. The introduction of a new ICT-related systemresults in diverse impacts and it turns out that the technologies cannot inthemselves explain the new delegation processes.Command and control systems have become always more complex forthe last 20 years. The distinction between strategic, operational and tacticallevels has been widely considered as an accurate way to analyze delegatedactions because it grounds the relations in the separation political responsi-bilities and military ones. The distinction between each level of thehierarchy has become more complex since the end of the Cold War. Itvaries considerably with the context and the composition of the coalition. Italso depends on the rules of engagement (ROE) which define the degree ofcoercion allowed by governments. The borderlines between the preroga-tives associated with the tactical, operational and strategic levels have nowblurred. The speed of information flow and the mass media coverage ofconflict both increase the strategic effects of each decision made at the

Open Source Software Governance Serving Technological Agility: The Case of Open Source Software within the DoD

The development of open source software is currently arousing increasing interest in the IT world. This research inquires some specific paths enlarging the traditional view over open source software in inquiring the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the dynamics associated its front- and back-office activities. We explain how distinguishing basic administration from operational constraints and weapon R&D dynamics introduces specific governance concerns among public and private stakeholders. By no longer defining open source solutions as mere goods, but as services characterized by a flow of knowledge, we particularly highlight new emerging strategies of technological acquisition. Our analysis leads to revise the traditional role focusing mainly on cost issues and introduces open source software with distinctive properties serving the management of innovation and technological agility at the level of complex systems, exemplified here with the constraints associated to weapon systems and the Network centric warfare doctrine

About the relevance of digital ecosystems for collaborative expert group projects

The article introduces the operational and theoretical challenges associated with the ECOPACK project that targets the development on digital collaboration platforms in order to facilitate an expert group. A return on experience with expert groups run with different modalities has made it possible to understand that the challenge locates at the level of the emergence of “weak ties” within the expert group. The digital platform also requires the monitoring of collaboration traces. It has to be considered as a “boundary object”.