Xavier Lecocq

Neither Market nor Hierarchy nor Network: The Emergence of Bazaar Governance

A growing body of literature describes the open source phenomenon in the software industry. Drawing on transaction cost economics, we propose that open source projects illustrate a new generic governance structure — which we label bazaar governance — based on a specific legal contract: the open licence. We characterize this structure in terms of its strengths and weaknesses and compare it to market, firm and network forms. Low levels of control and weak incentives intensity are distinctive features of bazaar, lending a high uncertainty to governed transactions. However, bazaar governance promotes the openness of open source communities, which can generate strong positive network externalities and subsequent efficiency in cumulative transactions. Our theoretical developments offer a potential basis for future research.

Crafting an innovative business model in an established company: the role of artifacts

Business models can be considered as cognitive models that managers or analysts can use to describe, understand, or test business activities. However, the emergence of a new business model requires not only cognitive operations but also concrete modifications to the realities of a company’s operations and structures. In this paper, we adopt a sociomaterial view of organizational change based on actor-network theory, and underline the role of artifacts in the emergence of new business models. We base our discussion on a case study of a French leader in kitchen electric appliances. Despite the fact that the building of its new business model is still in progress, this empirical study provides important suggestions concerning the role of artifacts.

Rethinking Business Models in Creative Industries: The Case of the French Record Industry

The aim of this research is to identify new value-creation logics based on the exploitation of creative contents and to understand how firms in creative industries have changed their business models. We therefore adopt a longitudinal approach and investigate the case of the evolution of the record industrys dominant business model over the past decade. This research reveals different strategies that organizations in the music industry have adopted in order to exploit creative contents in new ways. More generally, our results provide insight to better understand value-creation and value-capture mechanisms that take place within an industry and at an interindustry level of analysis.

Customers as creative resources: their influence on firm freedom

Purpose – Researchers and practitioners usually consider that integrating customers in firms’ business models comes with positive consequences. However, customer integration may also detrimentally influence firms by limiting their strategic and operational latitude, which, in this context, refers to the degree of freedom companies possess over their strategic and operational decisions and actions. Being aware of that would enable companies to limit this potentially harmful influence. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper that relies on recent business cases. It is suggested that the negative influence of customers on firms’ latitude occurs through the three dimensions of their business model, namely, resources and competences, value propositions (i.e. the firm’s offer) and the organization. Findings – By influencing the use of resources and competences, the design and evolution of the value proposition or the functioning of the organization, customers may constrain firms’ strategic and operational moves and thus have detrimental effects on their performance and evolution. Three ways to counterbalance this potentially negative influence are proposed. Research limitations/implications – A lack of prior research on the negative side effects of customer integration in firms’ business models is emphasized. Further studies are needed to help firms take these into consideration. Practical implications – Being aware of the potential drawbacks associated with using customers as resources, firms are invited to balance the level of their strategic and operational latitude with the importance that they grant to their customers. Originality/value – This paper introduces the concept of strategic and operational latitude. It is also one of the few to highlight the negative consequences of customer integration in firms’ business models.

Orchestrating Circularity within Industrial Ecosystems: Lessons from Iconic Cases in Three Different Countries

This article explores how to get companies engaged in value-creating cooperation regarding residual materials. Within different contexts, industrial ecology needs matchmakers who act as network orchestrators to facilitate new forms of interorganizational cooperation on what were previously perceived as “junk materials.” Three case studies of eco-industrial networks in Denmark (Kalundborg), Canada (the Québec region), and France (Dunkirk) demonstrate the various roles of the matchmakers to ensure the implementation of industrial ecology at the interorganizational level. This article highlights four strategic activities for matchmakers: revealing value in industrial ecology, generating trust, activating industrial ecology, and institutionalizing industrial ecology.

Turning regulation into business opportunities: A brief history of French food mass retailing (1949–2015)

Abstract The French retail market stands out among its European counterparts as being more concentrated. Relative to its neighbors, it has a higher number of large stores, such as hypermarkets. This article explains the origins of this market structure by assessing the impact of regulation on the French food retail industry between 1949 and 2015. Despite legislation aimed at curtailing their growth, retailers were able to circumvent legal constraints. Over the period considered, three ‘regulation-adaptation’ loops are described. Retailers’ responses to regulatory regimes affected both their bargaining mechanisms with suppliers and the business models they used to sell their products. By turning regulation into business opportunities, French retailers have managed to create a powerful oligopolistic industry, and are now among the largest retail groups in the world.