Incentives, Procurement and Regulation of Work Integration Social Enterprises in France: Old Ideas for New Firms?

Abstract

Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) in France become in-creasingly dependent on commercial resources through public and private markets. Following New Public Management reforms that try to modernize the sector via market oriented management, they have restructured and modified their practices. We compare the normative prescriptions of the theory of incentives in regulation to the actual practices. The trend toward competitive process is described and the form of incentives contract toward workfare is detailed. Are the main insights of this literature appealing for this kind of enterprises? Do the traditional incentives and contract theories ignore some very specific features of WISEs entities? We point out the drawbacks of potentially inaccurate forms of regulation contracts currently used.

The inclusive business model revisited: An “extended resource‐based theory” (re)definition built on the investigation of three diversified inclusive enterprises in France

“…Defining theoretically the inclusive business model by its strategic intent in favor of wasted human resources also contributes to the ‘extended resource‐based theory’ stream (Fréry et al, ; Ranjatoelina & Zaoual, ; Warnier et al, ), which constitutes the first research focused on wasted resource‐based business models. As we introduced it, our findings confirm the interest of this new prism—its theoretical anchorage and articulation—to renew strategic management's view upon social business models (Yunus, Moingeon, & Lehmann‐Ortega, ) and inclusive social enterprises (Borzaga & Defourny, ; Defourny & Nyssens, ; Gianfaldoni & Morand, ; Nyssens, ). Indeed, defining a business model by both its model of entrepreneurial and strategic intent, and its business system(s) appears particularly relevant to the exploration, the analysis and the development of business models which differentiate themselves by their social aim.…”

“…Indeed, the complete framework—including its theoretical definition and articulation—suggested in this research is likely to support the development of inclusive enterprises at the international level. Proposition 2: This new theoretical anchorage should also facilitate the development of strategic‐management researchers' interest for inclusive enterprises—and especially social ones. For instance, the “extended resource‐based theory” sheds new light on WISEs (Borzaga & Defourny, ; Defourny & Nyssens, ; Gianfaldoni & Morand, ; Nyssens, ) models analysis (Ranjatoelina & Zaoual, ).…”

“…In this context, inclusive social enterprises are particularly regulated and categorized upon a specific categorization of exclusion situations. The different kinds of considered WISEs—by the EMES network‐related research, namely the structure d'insertion par l'activité économique (SIAE) (cf., Borzaga & Defourny, ; Gianfaldoni & Morand, )—do employ indeed, in a large majority, people who have been unemployed for a long period (2 years and more). However, some inclusive‐social‐enterprise models seem to be unconsidered (or just simply forgotten) by the WISEs' French taxonomy: the entreprise adaptée (EA) and the établissement et service d'aide par le travail (ESAT) .…”

“…In France, the field of inclusive social enterprises—mainly analyzed in European research within the EMES network “work integration social enterprise” (WISE) prism (Borzaga & Defourny, ; Defourny & Nyssens, ; Gianfaldoni & Morand, ; Nyssens, )—is particularly institutionalized. In this context, inclusive social enterprises are particularly regulated and categorized upon a specific categorization of exclusion situations.…”

Lean HRM practices in work integration social enterprises: Moving towards social lean production. Evidence from Italian case studies*

“…Hence, we hypothesize the existence of a social lean production model. Gianfaldoni and Morand (2015), in relation to the application of standard public companies’ regulations to WISEs, have also pointed out the specific modeling of practices when applied to such organizations.…”