Le chercheur comme entrepreneur de l’innovation inter-organisationnelle

Abstract

Our study about the institutionalization process of social regulation practices emerging at the inter-organizational level led us to develop an action-research methodology of entrepreneurial nature. This methodological choice gave rise to original and rich data, but simultaneously challenged our ability to analyze these data as well as our entrepreneurial role in a reflexive way. The central question of this paper is then twofold: on the one hand, can the researcher be an « entrepreneur », and go beyond the simple production of knowledge? On the other hand, can the researcher with an entrepreneurial position produce scientific knowledge? We will answer these two questions thanks to two case studies, which will allow us to highlight various facets of acting as a « researcher-entrepreneur ».

Keywords

• institutional entrepreneur
• participatory action research
• social regulation
• translator
• partnership