The nature and focus of entrepreneurship research in France over the last decade: a French touch?

Second, the issue of internationalization is also influenced by system-specific factors. In France (with the exception of the business schools), career progression of a scholar in public universities depends on national competitive examinations and selection processes shaped by French research traditions and culture (accessing a permanent scholarship position requires qualification and specific selection procedures to obtain the grade of maitre de conferences; concours d'agregation is a requirement for full professors, etc.). In this perspective, French scholars face the challenge and difficulty to manage in parallel a "national" and an international career. Additionally, a journal-oriented output strategy appears to be (still) insufficiently valorized for career planning. Incentives and financial resources in public universities focus more on teaching than on research.

Finally, other specificities of the French higher education system complicate the international visibility of French scholars. From an international viewpoint, the French system appears to be quite complex. Traditionally, "laboratories" foster research activities of French scholars; but scholars often belong to several laboratories and tracing back their affiliation to the university they belong to is sometimes a difficult task. Moreover, higher education is also characterized by a dual system consisting of public universities (14) and business schools (Grandes Ecoles).

Conclusion

The main objective of this article was to give a first, broad insight into specificities of entrepreneurship research in France between 1995 and 2005, considered the emerging and take-off period of the field. We analyzed the emergence, nature, and focus of research in order to describe the field of entrepreneurship research in France. Our findings reveal a distinctive "French touch." The main facets of French entrepreneurship research we were able to identify in our study are summarized as follows: an emerging, rapidly growing field that still suffers from insufficient societal recognition; a strong focus on qualitative methods; a preference for conceptual contributions; the study of entrepreneurship in small-sized organizations; the entrepreneurial process as a key theme; and an insufficient internationalization of research outcomes.

Both the specificities and the actual state of internationalization of French entrepreneurship research have important implications for the research community and the institutions, which we will address in the following section.

Implications for Scholars and Academic Institutions in France

The question of internationalization and visibility of research outcomes reveals specific channels for knowledge dissemination, research traditions, network, and career strategies that (at least partly) explain the insufficient level of exchange with the international community. A better valorization of international research activities (incentives, career progression, a stronger international journal-oriented research output strategy, etc.) is required to make the contribution of French entrepreneurship research to the field more visible.

One of the results of our analysis reveals a different evolution (and knowledge diffusion) path concerning the internationalization process between public universities and business schools. Our findings about journal-oriented entrepreneurship research output confirm a higher internationalization degree of business schools in terms of research outcomes compared with public universities. International visibility in leading English-speaking journals is necessary to put forward what French scholars can contribute to the field. Implications for public universities and public French entrepreneurship scholars are numerous. The internationalization of entrepreneurship research and a stronger international visibility are difficult to be fostered without a policy of incentives and integration of these criteria for career progression. Valorization of international research activities concerns all selection processes (selection of PhD students, qualification to apply for permanent employment as maitres de conference in universities, concours d'agregation for full professors, etc.). However, currently, for scholars in public universities, resources for research activities at an international level (networking, conference participation, publication in international journals, etc.) are rather limited. Finally, the internationalization also concerns curricula and programs of higher education in management science and entrepreneurship.

These implications are, in our opinion, crucial in order to foster entrepreneurship research in France and increase the international visibility of its scholars.

Outlook

The distinctiveness of French entrepreneurship research as outlined in our study offers important possibilities for contributions of French scholars to the research community in the future. Nevertheless, the French touch of entrepreneurship is about to change and the starting internationalization process may cause convergence in methods and research strategies, but certainly without risk of losing its specificities. French entrepreneurship scholars have many opportunities to seize in a context of internationalization of the research community, especially if this community is increasingly aware of specificities French scholars could contribute.

The limitations of our study are linked to its epistemological nature. Classifying research into themes and issues is not an exact science and requires a certain level of interpretation. The data cover main outlets of publication and discussion forums; however an extension of the analysis to other, more generalized conferences and journals would be useful (AIMS in France, Academy of Management or Strategic Management Society in the United States). In the same way, including more European journals and international conferences could complement the positioning of French scholars we were able to identify within the scope of our study and our sample (Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference [BCERC] conference for the United States, the RENT conference of the European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Innovation and Small Business conference, Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research, etc.).

For future research, it would also be interesting to center the focus more specifically on the process as a privileged theme and qualitative methods applied in order to describe the special background in conceptualizing and theorizing of French entrepreneurship scholars.

Appendix: Weblinks for French Conferences and Journals

(Accuracy of Internet links last checked in June 2007)

1. French (speaking) journals of our sample:

* Revue de l'Entrepreneuriat, http://asso.nordnet.fr/r-e/

* Revue Internationale PME, http://neumann.hec.ca/airepme/parutions.html

2. French journals cited in our study:

* Finance Controle Strategie, http://econpapers.repec.org/article/dijrevfcs/

* Gestion2000, http://www.gestion-2000.com/revsom.php?Choixm=5&Choixsm=2

* Management International, http://revue.hec.ca/mi/

* Revue Francaise de Gestion, http://rfg.revuesonline.com/acceuil.jsp

* Revue Sciences de Gestion, http://www.iseor.com/rsdg/rsdg_menu.htm

3. French (speaking) conferences of our sample:

* Academie de l'Entrepreneuriat, http://www.entrepreneuriat.com/

* CIFPME (Congres International Francophone en entrepreneuriat et PME), http:// www.hec.ca/airepme/actes.html

4. French (speaking) conferences cited in our study

* AIMS (Association Internationale de Management Strategique), http:// www.strategie-aims.com/

5. Other European conferences cited in our study:

* IECER (Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research), http://www.iecer.de (for the 2007 edition: http://www.cerom.org/actualites_ evenements_manifestations/iecer_2007_montpellieff)

* ECSB/Research in Entrepreneurship and Small Business conference, http:// www.ecsb.org/eng/conferences/

* Entrepreneurship Innovation and Small Business conference, http://www.efmd. org/html/Conferences/conf_overview.asp?id=040929pnis&tid=2&ref=ind

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