Study of the relations between public and private capital-investors in France: a qualitative approach[Étude des relations entre capital-investisseurs publics et privés en France : une approche qualitative]

This research aims to understand the study of the relationships between public and private investors in France and their effects on business innovation. The literature review, based on both the public-private partnership (PPP) approach, complex network theories and resource-based-view theories, highlights the complementary role of disciplinary and incentive mechanisms as well as the exchange of specific resources as levers of value creation. These perspectives crossed with the organizational hybridization approach allow us to build a coherent framework explaining the phenomenon of mixed syndication and the relations between public and private actors. The methodology used adopts a qualitative approach with an interpretative aim and is based on twenty-seven interviews transcribed in full. Our thematic content analysis assisted by Nvivo software indicates that the relations between public and private capital investors of a formal or informal nature, particularly in a syndication context, at a national or regional level, are representative of an "economic-cognitive" approach to networking and innovation. Moreover, if certain actors retain observable characteristics in their interventions with companies and managers, the syndication context reveals an organizational hybridization of public and private actors. This would allow the private actor to take advantage of the distribution of wealth when the company develops its innovation. Finally, we can identify a process of quest for legitimacy on the part of the public actor characterized by its controlling role within the public-private partnership (Beuve and Saussier, 2019).