Michel Barabel

Changing nature and sustainability of the industrial district model : the case of Technic Valley in France

This paper examines the impact of contemporary pressures on industrial districts and analyses the changes that are taking place in an industrial district confronted with disembedding and globalization. We discuss the following questions: what are the processes and consequences of disembedding for the changing shape and form of inter-firm trust, contract and network forms? Is there an evolution in subcontracting and trade interdependency? What is the role of institutional infrastructures? We performed a longitudinal qualitative study using a number of different data sources to analyse the evolution of one French industrial district, particularly how new pressures of internationalization and disembedding work to reconfigure inter-firm relations in this district. While the recent literature is dominated by notions about industrial districts that concern only the trend towards increased competition or disembeddedness, this article shows that there is no unilinear trend. In contrast with the findings of certain recent studies, we argue that economic logic does not fully account for recent developments since the adjustment that are being made by the district are characterized rather by re-embeddedness, increased cooperation and institutionalization.

From smart grid to smart city business ecosystem: Strategy to define the proper legitimacy for an energy utility firm

DEVER RESEARCH has developed analytical and prospective tools based on the latest research outcomes to decipher, analyze and highlight relationships, environment and strategic opportunities for actors and stakeholders of the electric mobility and energy industry. The aim of this paper is to present the first results of an on-going research related to the impact of smart grid development on the Utility/Energy service providers legitimacy on Smart territories (Smart cities), therefore the required evolutions of company to move from a keystone firm position inserted into a complex but well-known ecosystem (smart grid) to a legitimate actor (and thus potential keystone) in the Smart cities ecosystem. After a comprehensive presentation of the concepts of legitimacy and business ecosystem, this article will present and validate analysis grids and recommendations based on examples and illustrations such as the Pecan Street project in Texas and highlight: the changes in “Smart” ecosystems, the type of legitimacy a firm can mobilize and the conditions that lead the Utility Company to evolve in order to ensure a central legitimate role in Smart cities.

EADS ou la dynamique multiculturelle

Une recherche menee chez le leader europeen de l’aeronautique fait apparaitre des specificites en rupture avec ce qu’on entend habituellement par culture d’entreprise.

« Je continue à croire que le culot et l'innovation peuvent faire la différence »

Les procedures d’achat des enseignes se sont profondement transformees. Entretien avec Jacques Gattepaille, patron de centrales d’achat au sein du groupement E. Leclerc.

International : le défi des différences culturelles

La construction de relations commerciales avec des acteurs etrangers ne peut faire l’impasse sur les differences culturelles au risque de capoter.