Valérie Gauthier

Cross-Cultural Language Teaching with Multimedia Tools

As language teachers and trainers we cannot ignore the definite need to reform our teaching strategies and methods if we are to listen to our prime source of employment: our students. And it is high time we listen to what our students have been screaming out in their own way (i.e., by being largely silent in the classroom) because, with one voice, those students are saying: “We want something new, something different”.

Competing Through Categorization: Product- and Audience-Centric Strategies in an Evolving Categorical Structure

We investigate how and why competing organizations position their similar products in categories of varying status. We studied the paired longitudinal case of the highly publicized contest between ESSEC and HEC, two French business schools, as they sought to position their core Grande Ecole program in the evolving international business education categorical structure. We conceptualize categorization as a competitive, relational process involving multiple actors and producing various meanings and perceptions. Our study (a) highlights the role of anticipated category status spillovers versus anticipated relative status within a category in producers’ entry decisions; (b) contrasts product- and audience-centric categorization strategies; and (c) shows the role of intermediaries in adjudicating categorization contests.