Research Note: Asterix in Disneyland. Management Scholars from France on the World Stage

Abstract

In the light of the growing expansion in international scientific publication, three questions are posed here. First, to what extent do French-based authors contribute to international management journals? Second, what are the geographical home bases of French authorships? Third, what is the orientation of French authorships? These questions are analyzed with the help of data from fifteen top journals in the management area during the period 1981-1992. This analysis reveals that authors based in France, like their colleagues in other non-US countries, account for a rather limited proportion of the articles in the top journals, namely less than 1 percent. It also appears that about 50 percent of the French-based authors are on the faculty of INSEAD, and that most of them have Ph.D.'s from prestigious U.S. universities and are not French nationals. Of the 'genuine' French, most come from the Paris area, or Grenoble or Lyon. Finally, the orientation of French-based authors tends particularly towards strategic management and operations research. Publications in accounting, on the other hand, are rare. Most references are to North American works.