Chapter 9 : Organisational and Technological changes in French agribusiness : Forms and determinants

In this paper, we attempt, with the help of a unique survey on French industrial firms (COI survey, Insee), to address the question of the relation between organisational changes and technological changes, and more precisely of how organisational change and IT adoption are related. To start with, we conduct an empirical examination of the tendencies and forms taken by organisational and technical changes in the case of French agro-food firms. Beyond revealing the diversity of these organisational choices, we then test the influence of the different external factors on these dynamics: are they dependent on the nature of the environments in which firms operate. How do firms develop specific adaptation strategies, with account taken of their internal characteristics and their modes of interaction with their external environment? They are tested using an econometric multinomial logit model, estimated on the basis of the classes to which firms belong. Beside revealing the effects of size and the effects of being part of a group, the multinomial logit estimates of the probability of belonging to a class of firms show that the intensity of organisational and technical innovations tends to increase with the degree of uncertainty concerning the demand. They are influenced by the uncertain nature of the environment and by the quality of information transmission. Consequently, there are more or less complex organisational models that differ, in particular, according to the modes of distribution of observation, communication and decision making tasks between their members.