Contenu du sommaire : Dossier : Autour de James March

Decision rules in the procedure of the development of new products. How can innovation decision be featured ? Does it involve a rational decision or rather a social-political one ? After reminding the two methods of the decision procedure including their tools, their advantages and their drawbacks, the author shows that a logical evolution takes place in the course of development of a new product. The social-political component fades away progressively, in favour of the rational component. At the starting point, the lack of information required for a rational decision, and the resistance to innovation, are both in favour of the outstanding part of the socialpolitical aspect. Eventually, once the initial brakes have been released, and the required information has been made available, then the rational component acquires its outstanding place. However, this evolution is tempered by the development processes used.

How to manage the police during a changing period ? Police activity is characterised by a paradoxical equilibrium between professional autonomy in the hands of the operators, and the weight of legal regulations which are supposed to rule the every day work. The loose control capacity of the operators' activities by their hierarchical chain is based on this paradox. Based upon the result of an investigation which has enabled the analysis of seventeen local police and state police in Belgium, this article links these various factors in order to determine the consequences of the adoption of personnel management models, by the responsible Agents in charge of the service. Since January 2002, the communal police services have merged with the territorial brigades of the Belgium state police. What are today the new stakes regarding the management of the local services within the frame of this change ? The three models presented before the merger are still presently in force or on the contrary, does the new work organisation have an influence aver the management style of operation ?

Towards a realistic evolutionary theory concerning strategic alliances. The investigation based on case studies including sixty conversations with executive officers and managers, inquires upon the past records and the consequences of the social identification between the key actors of strategic alliances. It completes and enlarges the recent evolutionist theory of alliances by exploring a set of psycho-sociological and emotional phenomena which remain understudied and which affect the key actors who are seldom taken into account in the literature of alliances, and who influence the alliance evolution. Last, it is a contribution to the literature on social identification, by exploring its negative effects in an interorganisational frame, especially favourable to its development.

Estimation of the leasing : towards a unified approach of the risks. In spite a similarity observed between leasing contracts and the risk bonds, the classical models for determining the rents of a leasing contract are focussed on the risk linked to the equipment and are unaware of the credit risks. The author compares the various models used and privileges a modern model which adopts a unified approach by integrating the two types of risks while integrating their intersection.

Influence of the familiy character of the issuing societies over the stock exchange quotations. The author studies the reaction of the French market on the issuing of stocks by setting a distinction between the family and non-familiy character of the issuing enterprises. The investigation covers the period between 1991/1998 over a sample of 141 family and non-familiy societies quoted in France. The impact over the stock-exchange quotations of the shares and optional bonds, is different according to the type of the issuing society. The operators in the market do not seem to be neutral with respect to the type of control, to the capital and to the management of the enterprise.

Creation of Value and French Direct Investments in China. Shared enterprise has been the privileged method of the European and especially the French investors for entering the Chinese market. How can the relevance of such a method can be estimated ? Starting from a methodology of events study the authors presents empirical facts related to the stock exchange estimation of a sample of announcements identified between 1994/1998. The analysis of certain variables which characterise the announcement studied, (coastal settlement of the French investors in China, distribution of the capital of the shared enterprise between French and Chinese partners, date of the announcement, type of activity) in relation with the abnormal efficiencies enable a better understanding of the stock exchange negative reactions which have been recorded.

Innovation and competition in the network industries. The specific nature of the network industries requires adequate technological strategies. Do these firm have to undertake a battle of standards or agree upon a common standard ? In order to grasp the stakes and the risks of this alternative approach, the article briefly studies the properties of the market dynamics, inside network industries, then examines the innovation strategies of the firms, with respect to each one of these competition modes. Last, the various market structures resulting from these processes are examined.

James March, a managerial thought in the heart of social sciences. The professional course and the thought of James March displays a great originality. While being a researcher in management sciences, his intellectual legacy is far beyond the frames of this science, since it greatly interests psychologists and sociologists, the economists as well as the supporters of politics interpretation. While being a teacher, James March has kept an active research activity in tight relation with organisations, their actors and their concerns. Eric Godelier presents in this article this thinker considered out of standard.

James March, a remodeller of the strategic conception ? Is James March a remodeller of the strategic conception ? To this natural question the answer is rather uneasy. In fact how is it possible to fix without ambiguity guide marks in the epistemologic rupture of an academic realm featured by the swarming of research questions. Alain-Charles Martinet tries an answer by guide marking the position assigned by strategic researchers to March, by clearing the most innovative topics of his works, while trying to estimate the proposals which have a rather low influence over the strategic management research.

Decision, conception et research in management science. In this article, the author shows how James March has contributed to questioning some generally accepted ideas such as optimisation, unique subject of collective action, adequacy between a solution and a problem and management science as an ethnology only based on the firm.

What is the need of a leader ? Key individuals, elites, high ranked executive officers and managers : what are the common features of the head of an organisation ? Far from overestimating their importance, Thierry Weil underlines the fact that on the contrary March shows that the success of organisations is seldom explained by the role of their leader. By tackling one of the major management myth, March dismantles the idea of a charismatic leader while keeping a partial aspect of this concept. Actually the leader remains the actor who supplies the organisation with its world perception and enhance the emergence of common targets.

The influence of March on the sociology of organisations in France. Since the sociology in France has been deeply influenced by the class struggle paradigm, organisation as such, considered as a minor importance, has been studied rather late. Notwithstanding this background, the works of March will contribute to a deep renovation of the sociology of the French organisations, especially through his theory of organisations, his investigation on the hypothesis of limited rationality, his study concerning power, his thoughts concerning social change, and his theory on management training. If the main legacy of March in France remains the strategic analysis current, other schools of thought borrowed therefrom their inspiration and Philippe Bernoux sets up a balance sheet of the French convergences and divergences, with respect to March'works.

Limited influence on the Economists. Within two fields, March's theory of the enterprise presents a radical innovation for the economist : the individual rationality and the behaviour of the enterprises. By emphazising the conflictual aspect of the enterprise since the years sixties, and by adopting the theory of limited rationality, March actually calls off with the paradigms of the classical economy. Nevertheless, his legacy is dispersed in a certain way. The outstanding current has been mainly interested in the political approach of the enterprise, while the unorthodox tendency has privileged his dynamic approach linked to the limited rationality. How can it be explained that March's works has been thus read partially by the economists ? If there is still shadows areas in March's works which explain this dispersion, Olivier Favereau shows also that the traditional partitioning of the economic science into an outstanding current and minority unorthodoxies, does not help a comprehensive reading of March.

Politics and the stock exchange. If the management and politics sciences have been studied independently, James March has been rapidly recognised as a supporter of politics influence on management sciences and as a reference. However, if March's works are well known in France, few researchers have used his demonstrations and the critics formulated about March's works are still unfinished and unsufficient. Yves Schemeil tries to understand and to analyse the paradoxical influence of James March in political sciences.