Doctoral thesis
Corbel, P., Les relations progrès technique-emploi : le cas de l'industrie électronucléaire, doctoral thesis in management sciences under the supervision of A. Maïsseu, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, September 2000
Abstract:
This thesis aims to tackle the relationship between technological innovation and employment in a new way. Its goal is to achieve a better understanding of those mechanisms in order to integrate them sooner into the technological strategy of the firm. Title I combines Historic, Economic, Sociological and Human Resources Management tools and concepts. We could establish that some of those concepts were common, especially reasoning based on techno-economic paradigms and the growing place of knowledge, and we showed how to take them into account in firm management. We also drew up a tool aimed at evaluating the number of jobs created or destroyed by a technological innovation. We applied it to the nuclear generation of the electricity market. The full model could only be applied to France, but some data have been collected through a worldwide survey in order to allow some international comparisons. The results are not only that a very capitalistic industry can create a huge number of jobs (not direct but induced), but also that with the same technical basing choice, the effects of technical progress on employment depend on strategies chosen to implement it.