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This contribution underlines the impact of the strategic decisions in the rivalry between quality standards. It presents the case of the forest sustainable management. A voluntary certification is organized to protect the threatened forests. But the recourse to the voluntary standards, instead of law, produces unexpected effects. Particularly, the organizations of standardization have to manage the emergence of rival standards and engage in complex competitive relations. Considering the contributions of the institutional work authors, we examine this rivalry and show how the battle is played on the research of legitimacy but also through not confessed competitive actions.

Keywords: Dynamique concurrentielle, stratégies relationnelles, guerre de standards, gestion durable des forêts, certification forestière, Competitive dynamic, interaction strategies, standards wars, sustainable forest management, forest certification, Dinámica competitiva, estrategias relacionales, guerra de estándares, gestión sostenible de bosques, certificación forestal

In 1831, a Cherokee chief said : « The race of the red man in America has become small ; the white race has become great and famous. » Why ? Epidemics ? Technological backwardness ? The power of the invader whose population increased by a coefficient of anywhere between 8 and 16 per century ? Impossible resistance ? Adam Smith's answer : the clash between humanity's childhood age of hunting and civilization's adult age of commerce. The Savage will eventually disappear. Tocqueville thought this to be true and inevitable. Beaumont saw a tragedy that could only be understood from within. Gallatin urged action, the creation of an Indian State on the shores of the Pacific and the necessary and pressing transition to masculine agriculture and private property. The Indians will then merge into the republic.

AbstractThis paper sets out to examine some of the issues in the present discourse on diversity. Our first line of research is that the increasing value accorded to cultural eclecticism and cosmopolitanism, that we call more specifically ostentatious openness to diversity, fits into a much wider scheme of discourses, based on a ranked set of opposites whose manifestations traverse the whole realm of social life : what is different, open, eclectic, cosmopolitan, trendy and therefore desirable finds itself in opposition to the unitary, the homogenous, the closed, the retrograde and therefore the undesirable. Our second line of research is that the symbolic accentuation of these opposites, in different fields, produces remarkably similar effects. In the realm of taste, ostentatious openness to diversity functions like cultural capital, in the Bourdieusian sense of a cultural trait widely recognizeded as desirable but whose conditions of appropriation are unequally distributed. In the political field, the discourse of openness to diversity is exhibited by groups — classes, nations, ethnic entities — variously situated in relations of power, in order to legitimize their own practices and to downplay those of groups with whom tensions exist.

The university constitutes an important site of (re-)affirmation for diverse Maori identities, where relationships among Maori and between Maori and non-Maori are negotiated and shaped. Higher education entails a direct confrontation between “two worlds”, one Western and the other Maori. Many students experience the university as an alien location, as it is a place deemed non-Maori. However, this site can also be an opportunity for Maori students to meet other young Maori from all over New Zealand. Such encounters are exciting, but they can also be stressful or disappointing due to the prominent and highly politicised rhetoric about “real” in contrast to “false” Maori identities. In such a context, many are soon asked to justify their Maori-ness. The transition is thus not always easy. For those who decide to pursue their studies, however, their university years are considered determining ones, shaping their engagements as much in the Maori worlds as in society in general. Attending university is experienced by many as a turning point; it is a time of “discovery” and/or (re-)affirmation of their Maori identities. This is made possible through a variety of means including a particular attachment to distinctly Maori sites at the university.

The professional smuggling of mass consumption products develops when demand for a product is not adequately fulfilled by the legitimate market. The difficulties encountered in supplying are, in most contemporary cases, caused by real rarity of the desired product. For other cases, however, the rarity is largely virtual in that government taxes aimed at the product in question lead to increasing the product's price to a prohibitive end. This was the case with cigarettes in Canada between 1985 and 1994. Before both, the federal and provincial, governments decided to drastically decrease cigarette taxes in February 1994, the price for a pack of cigarettes was five to six times higher than the same product in the United States. This article begins with a brief review of the contribution made by economists in regard to contemporary smuggling. Focus will be aimed at common characteristics of the smuggling phenomenon across the world. Elements which are more particular to the Canadian smuggling situation will be identified as well. While the difference in the price of cigarettes between Canada and the United States would seem to be the undeniable driving force behind the development of smuggling activities at the countries ' border, one key question remains unexplained. Why was the volume of contraband unequally distributed across Canada even though the price of cigarettes remained largely consistent throughout all provinces? The level of organization of smuggling networks was much higher in Eastern Canada, and particularly in Quebec, than it was in the western provinces. It is argued that the reasons for this are not only due to price, but to a series of political, historical, and geographical factors which allowed cigarette smugglers to function better in Quebec than in the rest of the country.

The present article displays a teleo-axiological reflection on the way west-African entrepreneurs contribute to renew representations of Africa. More specifically, our research explores valuation strategies for the continent as it is made by entrepreneurs engaged in a cultural mission. By comparing cases of both traditional and social entrepreneurs in the fields of fashion, we showcase multiple plausible valuation strategies mobilized by entrepreneurs in their project. Our results also contribute to develop knowledge on entrepreneurial values mobilization in order to deploy a valorising activity for their home country and encourage practitioners to practicing reflexivity.

Keywords: Diaspora, Entrepreneuriat, Valeurs, Valuation, Diaspora, Entrepreneurship, Values, Valuation, Diáspora, Emprendimiento, Valores, Valuación

The paper presents a framework for the researches on EDI performance in the SME development process. Confronting to the Inter-Organizational System implementation constraints which affect the SME's networks; to the lack of exploratory research and to the weakness of the SME's EDI network model, we are formulating an analysis corresponding to this technology development in an electronic link, or in an electronic market area.This analysis contributes to found a conceptual frame to analyze the EDI adoption process and the organizational change. It is also aimed to justify an EDI performance matrix. The conceptual frame is in favour of an informational integration strategy, consistent with the activities areas and the technological choices. Benefits and Advantages for the SME are induced by this EDI network strategy. Performance diagnosis matrix justifies the IOS Model choice. Benefits and Advantages for the SME are relatively assessed to the concerned management level.

Keywords: Intégration électronique (IE), Système d'information interorganisationnel (SIIO), Échange de données informatique (EDI), Stratégie d'alignement, Réseau d'entreprises