Contenu du sommaire : « Gouverner, c'est prévoir ! »

The place of the European Union in the world Is the EU a global actor, able to respond to the economic and cultural challenges it faces from the United States, to cope with the rise of the BRICS, to remain the preferred partner of Africa, attracting and controlling investment from China? Is it competitive in terms of research and innovation? The relational difficulties between the United States and the European Union are mainly at the level of commercial exchanges. In its relations with Africa, the European Union must now take into account the major emerging countries that are fighting for its leadership in trade. The positioning of the Chinese economy in the world has changed and is provoking more fears in Europe than understanding. Finally, and contrary to what one might think, the EU is not sufficiently competitive in terms of research and innovation. In search of a new model, the EU hesitates between choices, some of which favor the protection of the environment, while others emphasize collaborative economics, cultural diversity or territorial governance. With the economic crisis, most member states have experienced poverty and recession. They no longer believe in the promises of success. Over the years, there has been an economic divide between the northern and southern states. On the geopolitical level, the EU is undergoing two crises: to the West, is an identity crisis, on the East, it is a borders crisis.

National governance systems: typologies and trends The aim of this paper is twofold. At first, we review the literature about national governance systems and present the various existing typologies. These various theories expounded, we proceed in a second time, a discussion regarding the evolution of national governance systems at the international level. Our review of the literature leads us to retain a distinction between two main types of governance models and a potential alignment to the Anglo-Saxon system. However, our reflections on the question of the evolution of governance models raise the question of the consistency of the systems.

From corporate governance to inter-organizational control The evolution of corporate governance can be described in terms of « shareholders' return » (S. L'Hélias, 1997) as well as the entry of the society into the firm. Meanwhile, the development of corporate governance is considered to have a major structuring impact on managerial practices. However, little research deals with the diffusion of new corporate governance methods and their consequences on inter-organizational control practices. By relying on the French clothing industry, and by using the “control chain” approach (H. Poissonnier, 2005), we analyse how the diffusion of new norms of corporate governance affects inter-organizational control practices.

Board of directors: changing roles in capitalism mutations The research aims to study the Board of Directors' spot on capitalism transitions. Methodology connecting historical and critical literature review was engaged to conduct our analysis. Since the early twentieth century three capitalisms have succeeded: the managerial, the shareholder and the stakeholder. Organizations theories have tried to describe these changes and mainly corporate governance models that result. This capitalism' mutations stressed privileged actors who have influenced and governed company. Our development focuses on the Board of directors with reference to the other two key governance actors: shareholders and managers. The results emphasize the importance of trust and control as two interdependent elements in the definition of the Board of Directors' functioning.

Diversity of genre in board of management and performance of the Belgian Firms This research studies the impact of women presence in top management on 84 Belgian firm's performance from 2008 to 2011. We have achieved a panel data regression, using as dependent variables ROA and Tobin's Q. Our results reveal that neither women presence nor gender diversity in board of directors has an effect on performance. We also note performance decrease while women presence in management committee is increasing. Gender diversity presents the same results.

Socio-economic and ethical issues in collective bargaining The regulationnist – conventionalist program in economics and management considers, in particular with the difference of the standard neoclassical economic theory, that the social and collective negotiations and the trade unionism of negotiation are, on average, producers of a clear economic rent for the organizations and the economy in general. The adopted multidisciplinary posture makes in particular possible to highlight several positive feedbacks paths which, forwarding by the socio-economic capacities of regulation of a certain number of more or less formal rules, around whose conventions are tied, make more than compensate for the negative prices effects for the companies which can result from higher labour costs obtained by negotiation. The article focuses in particular, on the “trade-union speech” of A.O. Hirschman to the Keynesian reasoning and the regulationnist sociology of J-D. Reynaud, on four major types of positive feedback paths which all, by having impacts on the ratios remunerations/contributions of labour, and the feeling of social justice, produce socio-economic regulations which improve the economic and organizational performances of the companies and the economy.

Cooperation in health networks in gerontology – an analysis by the theory of H. Simon In France, healthcare networks have developed rapidly but they don't perform equally well. Applied to the case of healthcare networks in gerontology, the purpose of this article is to question the limitations in the functioning of health networks in the coordination of their members. Based upon the study of seven gerontological networks, we can highlight three major problems: the lack of power of the boarding director and in some cases, legitimacy of the network coordinator; communication problems within the network; and lack of commitment of members. These problems are discussed thanks to the H. Simon's theory focused on intra-organizational cooperation. This proposal provides solutions to improve the functioning.

An original example of entrepreneurial strategy. The case of a small wine-producing cooperative cellar A governance of twenty three years doesn't not act itself, but needs to craft together: thought and action, control and learning, stability and change. It's on the base of these three axes that we suggest illustrating the elaboration and the management of a strategy on the field of very small company. The study of a single case of a small cooperative cellar established in 1913, allows through the attitude of one of her managers to understand how we can conjugate innovation and sustainability in periods of profound transformations.

Role of cooperatives in the process of appropriation of the CSR in the plant sector Today the Corporate Social Responsibility of Companies (CSR) has a significant effect on both reflection and learning in companies. It has to be taken into consideration and we have to encourage others to do the same thing. So, from schools to universities, from SMEs to big companies and from employees to managers, the concept develops and sometimes changes our current practices. In today's companies where communication often precedes action it is a concept which is considered sometimes as insufficiently clear. Some consider it as an obligation, while others conceive it as a way of thinking and acting. For others it is even a probable objective. Whatever the case, it leaves no one indifferent. This is notably the case for companies in the plant growing sector. These companies are very small French companies and small and medium-sized enterprises preoccupied by CSR which corresponds to their environmental issues. They will be helped by their cooperative which will integrate these new rules and train them accordingly. In our study, we will try to understand why and how SMEs in the plant sector sometimes do, partially, CSR, sometimes without knowing it and examine the roles cooperatives play in the appropriation of these practices and the support which they bring to their members. Faced with collective pressure and of new demands which ensue from sustainable development, we shall also examine the processes of certification which seem to represent the precursors of the corporate social responsibility of SMEs in the plant sector.