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1 – 10 of 12Elen Riot, Emmanuelle Rigaud and Ilenia Bua
The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice involves defining their activities as entrepreneuring in a specific time and space that all actors experience as their sensible reality. To describe the whole process, the authors call this ensemble a “chronotope,” including the same space and time as part of a common story. The authors assess this narrative strategy in reference to both past conflict in the champagne business and to the present crisis caused by the pandemic in addition to a series of social, economic and environmental changes in the environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the paper corresponds to the case of a champagne family house in its environment with a longitudinal, processual approach of the family business venture before and especially after its sale and buyback by the family. The authors use Bakhtin to insist on the fictional nature of the account of most events as most protagonists adopt different perspectives. The Taittinger family, at the head of the trade house, creates a story that fits in all these perspectives and makes sense to overcome key issues in the business.
Findings
Our findings illustrate the role of the chronotope as a way to broaden the scope of inter- and intra-family relations. This concept also shows the importance of shared experiences, stories and crafted practices to sustain collective work and the meaning associated with the result of this work, in this case, champagne wine. The authors also show the different styles of chronotopes and their role in binding together actors in relation to the transformation of their activities.
Research limitations/implications
The research limitations are of two kinds. The first limitation comes from the choice to focus on the Taittinger family house, as it tends to focus the analysis on their point of view. The second limitation is due to the persistence of the pandemic situation that makes it difficult to test the chronotope idea as it is quite recent. Because of the current pandemic, it is complicated to anticipate what the future could look like and therefore, to imagine the future dimension of the chronotope. To overcome this limit, the authors suggest different scenario that leaves open different possibilities.
Practical implications
The practical implications of this paper could be to see how family business entrepreneurs may benefit from designing their strategy as a rich personal fiction in reference to a chronotope instead of referring to storytelling, communication and brand management or even competition strictly speaking. In turbulent times and to face grand challenges, long-term collaborations require stronger ties and imagination without leaving out emotions. Yet the entrepreneurs may become a victim of their own fictions if stakeholders perceive contradictions or if they were to dislike the new episodes the family invents.
Social implications
The social implications of this case study show the role of business relations built on fiction reflecting strong ties and shared processes such as entrepreneuring in the world of heritage goods where sustainability and endurance matter. This perspective insists on a shared story and it contrasts with more discontinued approaches based on disruptive innovation, opportunism and competitiveness in turbulent times. The chronotope does not ineluctably evolve in different ways, making actors’ perspective shrink, expand or exile. Family entrepreneuring may actively influence this transformation and they may also be framed by it.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper comes from the description of a family business in its environment as a chronotope. Reflecting how related actors in a business field like champagne co-construct a representation, the authors looked for a concept that would accurately reflect this vision, researchers chose the concept of “chronotope,” borrowing from narrative approaches. This approach is transdisciplinary. It is also an attempt to bring researchers at work closer to what actors in the field experiment with and find inspiration in.
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– This paper aims to show the representation of entrepreneurship in movies (blockbusters) as a source of influence on popular representations.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show the representation of entrepreneurship in movies (blockbusters) as a source of influence on popular representations.
Design/methodology/approach
The author uses semiotics to contrast dominant representations in popular movies about Chanel with the reality of her professional life as can be found in archives about the fashion world and couture workers.
Findings
The changes in the account of the entrepreneur's success may disregard important elements such as the importance of collective work and the role of social history on entrepreneurial ventures.
Practical implications
Is entrepreneurship really a source of information in the general representations of what it is to be an entrepreneur and what explains the success and failure of entrepreneurial venture when we observe that popular representations are so far away from what research can describe and interpret using primary data?
Originality/value
By displaying the discrepancy between entrepreneurship theory and popular representations, especially in the movies, one may be able to grasp some of the reasons why entrepreneurship needs more in-depth analysis of actors' representations in relation to the image of popular entrepreneurs in the public eye.
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Mathias Béjean and Annie Gentès
This paper aims to contribute to the field of research that considers how artefacts and information and communication technologies (ICT) shape organizational practices. In…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the field of research that considers how artefacts and information and communication technologies (ICT) shape organizational practices. In particular, it aims at understanding how tools not only reconfigure relations in organizations, i.e. how people coordinate between each other, but also meaning, i.e. how people interpret the fundamental meaning of their work content and tasks.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports findings from a longitudinal ethnographic study which investigates the writing process of an interactive live performance written by a group of non-professional writers that was led by French video and multimedia artist Michel Jaffrennou during three months.
Findings
The paper shows how multiplying writing software induced the group members to challenge their initial understanding of the cultural and traditional genre of “theater play”. It provides an empirically based account of the capacity of tools to reconfigure meaning in organizational contexts.
Practical implications
The paper provides insights about how tools can be used not only as means to an end, but also as ways in which to build original strategies for exploration, especially during creative group sessions.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on distinctive albeit poorly studied aspects of tools and ICT within organizations, namely their capacity to reconfigure meaning, which more empirical studies could further investigate.
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– This article aims to draw on analysis of embodied plays in the game of association football to show the central significance of embodied spatial competence.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to draw on analysis of embodied plays in the game of association football to show the central significance of embodied spatial competence.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is descriptive and theoretical.
Findings
Describes the special skills of unusually talented performers like dancers and midfield soccer players who appear to understand embodied movement in three-dimensions, and considers whether these attributes are transferable to business decision making.
Research limitations/implications
No original research is reported but suggestions for areas of further study are made.
Practical implications
If senior managers were able to learn such skills, the practice of strategy formulation and review could be better understood as embodied rather than as embrained.
Social implications
Developing strategy as performance could enhance organisational competence.
Originality/value
These concepts have not previously been applied in organisational analysis.
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Elen Riot, Cecile Chamaret and Emmanuelle Rigaud
As some areas of the luxury market have been industrializing because of their expanding scale and scope, the commoditization trend is threatening luxury brands along the value…
Abstract
Purpose
As some areas of the luxury market have been industrializing because of their expanding scale and scope, the commoditization trend is threatening luxury brands along the value chain. Too many products might flood the market. Because the commodity trap has not so far been commonly referred to as the source of the problem, the efforts of firms to decommoditize have seldom been described. The purpose of this paper is to describe and interpret one type of successful reaction to this problem: the exclusive partnership made by Louis Vuitton with artist Takashi Murakami. The paper identifies the strategy along the value chain and its step by step implementation and influence on commoditization.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper identifies the strategy behind this partnership and its step by step implementation. It uses a qualitative method because it would like to understand complex phenomenon and explore in depth, some strategic operations and decisions. More precisely, it is a case study research because it works on a contemporary situation and allows to retain the meaningful characteristics of real-life events as organizational, managerial and social processes
Findings
LV strategy raises the difficulty for competitors to imitate or to propose same value products as the value added to LV product is almost unique with Murakami ' s touch. With this strategy they impact commoditization as defined by Reimann et al. Also, we formulate a few recommendations and insist on the integration of all the parts of the upstream value chain- especially operations – to achieve a successful long-term retail strategy.
Research limitations/implications
There are no research on partnerships between art and luxury. Our extensive analysis of the partnership between LV and Murakami gives a comprehensive view of how this kind of collaboration helps to fight back commoditization. However, more case studies should be studied to know if the strategy is replicable.
Practical implications
This research gives a comprehensive analysis of the adaptation of the value chain to make the partnership a success. It also underlines the need to conduct and to adapt the whole value chain to the specifities of the artist.
Originality/value
There are few research investigating the links and partnerships between artists and luxury brands. The originality is to describe a particular partnership concerning all the parts of the upstream value chain – especially operations – it also makes recommendations concerning potential partnerships between art and luxury to fight back against commoditization.
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– This paper seeks to apply a processual thinking of subjectivity in the study of “becoming entrepreneur”.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to apply a processual thinking of subjectivity in the study of “becoming entrepreneur”.
Design/methodology/approach
Through analysing Foucault's idea of subjectification, by the help of Deleuze's comments and elaborations, the paper seeks to clarify one opacity in entrepreneurship research – the “vanishing presence” of the entrepreneur in processual studies of entrepreneurship. To avoid performative contradiction, the paper seeks to contextualise this attempt in guiding principles provided by process philosophy.
Findings
Without a process view, “the subject” as entity and self-constitutive res cogitans (thinking thing or mind) will take priority over subjectification, and the paper will loose the possibility to think and study the process of becoming-subject in its own terms.
Originality/value
Understanding entrepreneurship as organisation-creation, the paper here adds a processual conceptualisation to the study of such processes by focusing on the arrangements (agancements as Deleuze called this, or dispositifs as Foucault preferred to use) in which subjectification into “entrepreneur” happens.
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Yoann Bazin and Clémence Aubert-Tarby
The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of dress codes in professions. Since they can be considered as carriers of both organizational communication and individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of dress codes in professions. Since they can be considered as carriers of both organizational communication and individual identity, they will be central in professions as communities and through the professionalization process. Therefore, we will ask the following question: what is the role of understanding and complying with dress codes in becoming a professional?
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical study consists in a series of ethnographic interviews and observations aiming at understanding dress codes' roles and dynamics in financial professions.
Findings
Exploring dress codes in three typical professions in finance, we have discovered that they also are mediums of communication within the group, strengthening a certain aesthetic sense of belonging and of presenting the self.
Originality/value
In this, becoming a professional can be understood as an aesthetic experience through which all senses are involved. Considering professions as being also aesthetic communities shifts the focus – or rather enlarges it – toward symbolic, corporeal and sensorial elements.
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The purpose of this article is to examine the similarities between creative business leadership and successful artists and to illustrate how the label “outside artist” is a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to examine the similarities between creative business leadership and successful artists and to illustrate how the label “outside artist” is a romantic myth.
Design/methodology/approach
Making use of four cases in classical music history, this study analyzes how a quartet of musical artists negotiated their space inside highly organized and changing environments.
Findings
Many qualities exhibited by musical artists are similar to those required of successful organizational managers. One of the reasons that insider artistry is a complex phenomenon is that socio-organizational conditions are not fixed, they change. Therefore, each new generation of artists has to invent new strategies to get the job done.
Practical implications
Understanding the nature of these similar qualities will help clarify the issue of making art work inside organizations and dispel erroneous assumptions about the role of artists in these organizations.
Originality/value
This article will contribute to the practical as well as the philosophical conversation about the place of artists inside successful organizations in society.
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Elen Riot and Emmanuel de la Burgade
The aim of this paper is to explain how the globalisation of services can be limited or enhanced by societal effects.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explain how the globalisation of services can be limited or enhanced by societal effects.
Design/methodology/approach
This analysis is based on a single case study. The authors use a qualitative and longitudinal approach, with in‐depth interviews and archives collected during a six‐year period of participant observation inside the firm.
Findings
The authors argue that societal dimensions are at play in the evolution of services activities, and that their influence is especially strong in ex‐public services monopolies. They illustrate the limits of strategic change due to the specific dynamics of societal effects. The authors first look at the evolution of strategic fit before and after multiple changes in La Poste. They then identify different types of reactions at local level. They conclude by insisting on the enduring influence of social patterns and traditions on the adoption of new technologies and modes of organisation.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this research is that a more thorough comparison with other European national leaders in postal services would have helped strengthen this analysis.
Practical implications
A first practical implication for services firms is that societal changes should be greatly considered in their globalisation process and that societal changes are often underestimated. Another practical implication is that a globalisation of services process must certainly be situated at a global level based on national and local specificities built in time.
Originality/value
While comparative studies on international management have often focused on the different modes of organisation depending on culture and institutions, the impact of globalisation on services have been left relatively under‐explored. This paper takes the example of the service industry to show that cultural reasons are not sufficient to explain why the internationalisation of services may encounter difficulties. Other factors such as societal effect should be included.
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