RFG 2013
Bandeira de Mello, R.; Bardon, T.; Corbel, P.; Cusin, J. and NGuyen, P.H.S. « Management relationnel et frontières de l'entreprise », Revue française de gestion, Vol.39, No 232, April 2013, pp. 15-23
Back cover of the special issue:
The question of organisational boundaries is a classic one, both in economics and in organisational theory. However, it takes on a new dimension in the age of the network economy, open innovation and coopetition. This special issue, based on a selection of papers originally presented at the 21st International Conference of the AIMS (Association Internationale de Management Stratégique) in Lille in June 2012, presents a set of empirical studies and reflections on the theme of managing the growing interactions between organisations and an environment whose boundaries are often difficult to identify.
In practical terms, the environment is no longer seen as a given. Sometimes, company directors and their teams are led to try to change it through strategies of influence, in effect also becoming "political entrepreneurs". They may also have to shift the boundaries with this same environment by outsourcing certain activities, but also sometimes by reinternalising some of them, operations which have so far attracted much less attention from strategic management researchers. The competitive environment has also become more complex. Companies are increasingly required to cooperate with competitors, which means managing a number of new paradoxical tensions. They sometimes do so within the framework of "clusters", which in France take the form of competitiveness clusters. The governance of these networks of companies of varying sizes and educational and research institutions also raises specific issues. Finally, one of the benchmarks often used to define the boundaries of an organisation is the employee. You are in the organisation if you are an employee. Yet organisations could undoubtedly make better use of the potential offered by the network of their former employees...
These are the topics covered in this issue. As we can see, the issues raised by the management of organisations' relations with an imprecise and changing environment are diverse, interconnected and crucial for the management of organisations today.
This issue was edited by Pascal Corbel, Rodrigo Bandeira de Mello, Thibaut Bardon, Julien Cusin and Pham Hoanh Son Nguyen.
Link:
The article is available in open access on the journal's website.