3 Presentations

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  02:30 PM - 03:00 PM

  Impact of National and Organizational Cultures: From SMEs to a Large Group… The Case of Carrefour in Romania

  • François Cassière, presenter, IAE - CRCGM

  Though the international expansion of retailer takes many strategic variables into account, it seldom examines the impact of the cultural variable on the process. Here a qualitative approach has been used. It is based on the discourse of 33 key actors in the Romanian retail industry and one French firm: Carrefour. The case of Carrefour in Romania highlights the importance of first entering a market with an SME structure favouring a more relational culture before then deploying a more standardized business model. This research, which has been carried out in an emerging country, aims to understand the intercultural process used by the retailer. The inclusion of a new variable (culture) to obtain our results enriches the cycle of internationalization via the creation of an analytical grid which includes both the strategic and includes cultural variables used by the retailer.

• 
  03:00 PM - 03:30 PM

  An Approach for the Valorization of Competitive Intelligence Practices in SME Supply Chains

  • Pierre Fenies, presenter, Université d'Auvergne
  • Norbert Lebrument, Université d'Auvergne

  At the interface between supply chain management and business intelligence for SMEs, the focus of this paper is twofold: (i) ) it seeks, firstly, to show how to develop a strategic approach and qualitative-type "business intelligence" in SME’ Supply Chain; (ii) it also aims to show how the processes of competitive intelligence can be embedded in SME’s supply chains and create value for everyone involved, or at least avoid leakage of strategic knowledge and know-how; The issues associated with business intelligence as they relate to SME’supply chains are therefore detailed. An extension of PREVA (for PROcess EVAluation approach (Comelli et al., 2008) to qualitative "business intelligence" type processes is proposed. In the third part, we present the implementation of this approach in a case study focused on the supply chain of an SME based in the French area of Thiers, operating in the cutlery sector.

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  03:30 PM - 04:00 PM

  Personal Networks Management and Competitive Intelligence in French SMEs

  • Catherine De La Robertie, presenter, Université de Rennes 1
  • Norbert Lebrument, Université d'Auvergne

  Little empirical research has been conducted on competitive intelligence in French SMEs. The influence of SMEs’ top decision makers’ personal networks on competitive intelligence practices’ development remains to be ex-plored. This paper aims at studying and measuring this influence. To do so, a literature review of both competitive intelligence and social capital fields led us to construct a conceptual model based on four hypotheses. Data from 193 questionnaires are analysed through a PLS regression. These ques-tionnaires were filled out by French SME high-tech dedicated to information, telecom and audio-visual technologies. The results provide support for the four hypotheses. The results showed that personal networks of decision makers influence positively the development level of competitive intelligence practices in high-tech French SMEs.