Alternative forms of business organization: a historical case study on the French Watch Cases factory of Boimondau

This paper focuses on the history of a specific organization showing the relationship between law and the emergence, modification, and disappearance of the Boimondau Community's corporate governance practices. Boimondau covered a European market and actively organized the Resistance in France during the Second World War. This organization, which existed from 1941 to 1971, influenced the practices of other organizations in France and in Europe. It paved the way for a European movement called "Work Communities". By interrogating various historical materials on Boimondau, the paper first shows that an organization, even an alternative one, can significantly impact its time and influence managerial practices. In the second part, the paper highlights the role of the Boimondau case in the studies of several researchers whose works are still used today in management sciences. The disappearance of the organization then leads us to put forward the dual relationship between law and organization. On the one hand, an organization, even an alternative one, can contribute to the development of national law. But on the other hand, the absence of adequate legal status contributes to the disappearance of a whole movement of practices. This lack of status impoverishes the concept of what a "company" is and the various forms that organized collective action can take.