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This paper aims to highlight the relationship between cultural differences and the performance of non-equity alliances in the hotel sector with reference to a developing country. The paper employs an empirical investigation based on quantitative analysis. Data were gathered through questionnaires obtained from Tunisian hotels involved in 78 non-equity alliances with foreign partners. The partial least squares (PLS) technique was used to estimate the model. Results reveal that national and organizational cultural differences have a negative impact on alliance performance in this sector. The likelihood of alliance decay is then strengthened. However, national cultural differences do not moderate the relationship between organizational cultural differences and alliance performance. The corporate culture of these hotels could somehow be impervious to local culture. This paper helps fill the void of empirical evidence of the impact of both levels of culture on the performance of non-equity alliances in the hotel industry, which warrants more attention, especially in developing countries. more...

In this research work, we sought to conceptualize the existing relationship between entrepreneurial learning and failure. By exploring the theoretical models of entrepreneurial learning, particularly those of Cope (2005) and Politis (2005), we identified three major research proposals that we confronted with reality by conducting an exploratory qualitative study with 10 Tunisian entrepreneurs who had experienced failure during their entrepreneurial activity. Through this study, we retained that failure constitutes an opportunity for entrepreneurial learning that manifests itself as a continuous process where the emotions of the entrepreneur play an important role. This learning depends on the nature of the failure, the emotions and the emotional regulators. more...

La joint-venture internationale est un lieu de rencontre de plusieurs cultures differentes ou chaque personne se refere a sa propre culture dans ses comprehensions, ses interpretations et sa maniere d’agir. Ce travail s’attache a l’idee de montrer que les differences culturelles sont source de nouvelles pratiques manageriales des coentreprises franco-tunisiennes. Les resultats ont montre que la distance culturelle nationale affecte le processus de gestion et pousse les managers a instaurer de nouvelles pratiques manageriales pour gerer l’entite nouvellement creee. more...

Since the 1980s, the project has become an essential management approach for contemporary companies that require profound organizational transformations, hence the need for more in-depth studies on human resources development in this new environment. The present work aimed to recognize the different challenges of the training policy in the project environment. To this end, we conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with Tunisian project managers. The results showed that the training policy is a conducive context for skills development in the project environment. Project-based organizations are called upon to promote their employees’ skills through training programs encompassing mainly two kinds of skills: interpersonal and technical. The results also revealed that the temporary and unstable nature of the projects leaves little room for training due to time pressure, lack of budget, and work overload. more...

The concept of competence has recently been a hot topic in science management, particularly human resource management. However, most of the studies conducted on this topic have mainly been theoretical. Thus, the present study aims to operationalize competence management through the construction and validation of a questionnaire intended for Tunisian project managers. To this end, a quantitative study is conducted among 156 respondents. The principal component analysis and Cronbach's alpha calculations were used to ensure the validity and reliability of the factor structures. The results of the factor analysis confirm the existence of a measurement scale of competence management that comprises five independent dimensions, namely recruitment, assessment, training, compensation, and career management. This study provides project managers with a measurement instrument that can be used to analyze competence management practices in their companies so that they can develop and enhance their employees’ skills. more...

This study aims to identify the factors that affect the job satisfaction of professional accountants. It examines the relative effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on job satisfaction among accounting professionals. Our methodology was applied to 232 accounting professionals working in Tunisia. The methods of data analysis are principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression. The results show that intrinsic and extrinsic factors have a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. However, promotion, growth and recognition do not have effect on job satisfaction. more...

This paper discusses the effect of psychological traits on success. We empirically explore the effect of entrepreneurs’ psychological biases on their venture success. Using a sample of Tunisian entrepreneurs and the cognitive mapping technique, our results indicate that psychology does affect business venture success. Especially, the entrepreneurial overconfidence and optimism biases can largely affect the new venture success. However, other variables, such as capital and social networks, also have strong effects on new venture success in this country. We control for gender differences and their effects on our empirical findings. For this purpose, we divide our full sample to constitute two sub-samples using the entrepreneur’s gender. We find that the behavioral factors, especially overconfidence, optimism and hope, have a great impact on new venture launched by female entrepreneurs compared to male entrepreneurs. In fact, the success of new venture launched by male entrepreneurs is less affected by behavioral factors and only the overconfidence bias can have an influence and their new venture success remains dependent to their age, experience and education. more...

Research on the impact of satisfaction on job performance has proliferated over the last few years; however, the results are deemed inconclusive. Here, a total of 240 accounting professionals participated in this study through a questionnaire survey. The four career stages were integrated into our model as a moderating variable of the relationship between job satisfaction and performance. The results prove that the further we move through career stages, the stronger the relationship between satisfaction and performance at work is. more...

In recent years, the globalization of markets, the intensity of competition and the evolution of technology have forced companies to rationalize their management practices. Two main consequences arise: First, the emergence of new forms of organization, in particular project-based organization (PBO), denouncing the principles of scientific management. Second, the emergence of competence management has become an essential factor in the modernization of human resources management. This study aimed to understand how the relationship between PBO and competence management is effectively achieved. To this end, a qualitative research was conducted within Tunisian companies operating in different sectors of activity. The results show that recruitment and evaluation are two essential practices at the service of PBO and competence management. The results provide managers with a better understanding of the competence management in the PBOs. more...

The present article aimed at studying the relationship between project-based organization and competence management practices (recruitment, assessment, training, compensation and career management). The central question of our research is formulated as follows: To what extent does project-based organization influence competence management practices? To answer this question, we adopted a quantitative study. A total of 156 Tunisian project managers participated in our survey. We tested our hypotheses through a linear regression analysis. The results show that the majority of competence management practices, namely recruitment, evaluation and training, are more relevant to project-based organizations and thus the three first hypotheses are confirmed. However, other practices, like remuneration and career management, are insensitive to project activities. more...

Purpose–This study examines the impact of organizational commitment(OC)on job performance. Two hundredforty professionals participated in this study. Design/methodology/approach–Our methodology has been applied toof 240 professional accountants who work in accounting offices in Tunisia. Findings–The results show that both affective and continuity dimensions have a positive and significant impact on performance, whereas the normative commitment has a positive but not significant effect. Originality/value–our knowledge, very little research has been conducted to investigate the accounting profession. our study aimed to fill this gap by studying the impact of OC on job performance of accounting professionals in the Tunisian context. more...

Le mythe schumpeterien de l’entrepreneur isole et heroique etant de plus en plus critique, l’etude de l’incidence de la famille et du reseau relationnel sur l’acte entrepreneurial suscite l’interet de nombreux chercheurs. Dans la lignee des travaux de McGee (2000) et de Verstraete et Saporta (2006), le propos du present article est de mettre en lumiere la nature et les determinants de l’influence de ces acteurs sociaux sur la creation d’entreprise. Les resultats d’une serie d’entretiens semi-directifs menes aupres de 30 entrepreneurs tunisiens revelent que pour la famille, cette influence est multiforme, ambivalente, partielle et tributaire de la qualite de la relation entretenue avec le futur entrepreneur. Ainsi, quand bien meme la famille desapprouve l’orientation entrepreneuriale de l’un de ses membres, elle stimule l’acte entrepreneurial en pourvoyant inconditionnellement des ressources financieres. Quant au reseau relationnel, il agit comme un catalyseur a la creation d’entreprise voire un substitut au soutien familial des lors que celui-ci fait defaut. En ce sens que lorsque les parents inhibent l’acte entrepreneurial, le reseau relationnel prend la releve en soutenant psychologiquement et materiellement le porteur de projet. more...

Cette recherche vise à comprendre la relation entre le parcours scolaire et l’acte entrepreneurial en tentant d’étudier le rôle du système éducatif tunisien en matière d’entrepreneuriat. Pour ce faire, nous menons une étude exploratoire qualitative portant sur des entretiens de parcours de 30 entrepreneurs. Nos résultats montrent que le système éducatif tunisien ne favorise pas l’acte entrepreneurial et souffre de plusieurs insuffisances. Quel est alors le rôle du parcours scolaire dans l’acte entrepreneurial et comment est mobilisé le système éducatif tunisien dans les parcours des entrepreneurs ? Les résultats auxquels nous sommes parvenus illustrent que le parcours scolaire favorise indirectement l’acte entrepreneurial et prouvent certaines insuffisances du système éducatif tunisien. This research aims at understanding the relation between the school course and the entrepreneurial act by trying to study the role of the Tunisian education system regarding entrepreneurship. To do it, we lead a qualitative exploratory study concerning conversations of course of 30 entrepreneurs. Our results show that the Tunisian education system does not favor the entrepreneurial act and suffers several inadequacies. What is then the role of the school course in the entrepreneurial act and how is mobilized the Tunisian education system in the course of the entrepreneurs? The results which we reached illustrate that the school course favors indirectly the entrepreneurial act and prove some deficiencies of the Tunisian education system. more...

RésuméCette recherche vise à étudier non seulement l’intention de créer une entreprise, mais aussi les attitudes envers la création d’une entreprise et les perceptions des normes sociales et leur impact sur la capacité à mener un processus entrepreneurial.Pour ce faire, nous menons une étude sur 49 diplômés de l’École Supérieure de Commerce de Sfax. Nos résultats révèlent l’importance des attitudes associées au comportement dans l’intention entrepreneuriale. La culture entrepreneuriale joue un rôle très important. Que peut-être alors l’impact des normes sociales sur l’intention entrepreneuriale ? Dans nos résultats, nous avons trouvé que seule l’influence des intentions des condisciples est significative. Les contraintes financières, les informations pouvant être transmises ainsi que la formation en création d’entreprise, en d’autres termes tout ce qui se rapporte aux perceptions du contrôle comportemental, ont un effet non significatif sur l’intention. Dans ce sens pouvons-nous affirmer que la formation entrepreneuriale suivie par l’étudiant pourrait s’ajouter à sa réalité sociale et, de fait, influer sur le choix de la profession future de l’étudiant, tant que cette formation peut s’intégrer dans de nouveaux modèles, de nouvelles attitudes qui sont de nature à modifier le comportement des individus ?AbstractThis research aims to study not only intend to start a business, but also attitudes toward starting a business and perceptions of social norms and their impact on the ability to lead an entrepreneurial process. To do this, we conduct a survey of 49 graduates of the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Sfax. Our results show the importance of attitudes associated with entrepreneurial behavior intention. Entrepreneurial culture plays a very important role.May be then the impact of social norms on entrepreneurial intention? In our results, we found that only the influence of the intentions of peers is significant. Financial constraints, the information can be transmitted as well as training in entrepreneurship, in other words everything that relates to perceptions of behavioral control, have an insignificant effect on the intention.In this sense, we can say that the entrepreneurial training followed by the student could be added to the social reality and, in fact, influence the choice of future profession of the student, as this training can be integrated in new models, new attitudes that are likely to change people's behavior? more...

To meet the challenges of the financial institutions, the support of the performance are to treat. This research symbolizes an attempt to persuade some. Indeed, the performance of companies represents a field of study very varied. As well, governance, via its mechanisms, is a tool for the improvement of the performance. Then, the objective of the article is to inspect empirically the effects of internal mechanisms of governance on the trade performance of the Tunisian financial institutions.The econometrics of the data allows us to study a sample composed of 34 financial institutions. We find that the results dealing with the impact of governance on the commercial performance are mixed. more...

This study covets to inculcate the specificities of the governance of the Tunisian financial institutions and the impact of the internal mechanisms of governance of these institutions on their social performance.The empirical presentations conducted in this article unveil similarly important outcomes. In effect, the variables measuring the council of administration, trust, the culture, the Audit Committee and the remuneration system reveal divergent effects on the performance of financial institutions subject to our sample. more...

La fin du XXe et le debut du XXIe siecle se caracterisent par la rapidite et la diversite des changements parvenus sur toutes les composantes de l’environnement de l’entreprise. Ceci a contraint les entreprises a revoir et repenser leurs strategies pour garantir leur perennite. Les ressources humaines procurent a l’organisation un avantage competitif et/ou concurrentiel. L’entreprise doit, dans son interet, integrer la formation dans sa strategie. Elle doit l’integrer dans un processus methodique, organise et permanent. Cela suppose que l’entreprise se transforme en un veritable « milieu de formation » et qu’elle fait de cette formation une veritable strategie volontariste pour la poursuite de ses objectifs. more...

Notre recherche s’est axee sur l’interaction des dirigeants tunisiens et etrangers (europeens essentiellement) d’entreprises en Joint Venture. Elle visait a definir les problemes generaux poses par cette interaction en liaison avec la culture. Cette demarche nous a en fait permis de constater un phenomene de distorsion de perception, entre les etrangers et les locaux, qui pouvait alors etre a l’origine d’un accroissement des couts de transaction. more...

La capacité de comprendre des situations interculturelles et de s’y adapter est appelée compétence interculturelle. Au cours des dernières années, ce concept de compétence interculturelle a acquis de plus en plus d’importance, essentiellement au niveau des contacts globaux entre les entreprises et organisations diverses ; la capacité de pouvoir communiquer avec succès devient de plus en plus désirée dans le monde entier. Le but de ce travail est de donner un véritable contenu à la notion de compétence interculturelle et de montrer ses conditions d’émergence et de proposer aux entreprises des outils susceptibles d’obtenir une plus grande efficacité dans ce domaine. Pour ce, une enquête a été réalisée auprès de quelques entreprises en Tunisie ayant une expérience internationale significative. Abstract : The capacity to understand and adapt to intercultural situations is called intercultural competency. During the last years, the intercultural competency concept has acquired more and more importance, especially in global contacts between diverse firms and organizations; the capacity to communicate successfully becomes more and more desired all over the world. This paper aims at a) giving content to the intercultural competency notion and to show its emergence conditions; b) giving firms tools wich can improve their efficiency in this field. To reach this objective we have carried a survey on firms settled in Tunisia which have a significant international experience. more...

L’intrapreneuriat est devenu au cours des dernieres decennies l’objet d’un grand interet aussi bien pour les chercheurs que pour les praticiens. Ceci, en raison de son effet benefique sur la revitalisation et la performance des grandes et des petites et moyennes entreprises. Malgre l’interet majeur et l’utilisation des multidimensions generatrices d’activites novatrices, rentables et performantes, peu de recherches empiriques ont examine les influences contextuelles sur les activites intrapreneuriales et leurs consequences. Le theme de l’intrapreneuriat est certes tres populaire, bien que, tres peu de gens saisissent parfaitement ce concept. Ce document contribue a clarifier cette ambiguite et tente de definir ce champ de l’intrapreneuriat en le distinguant des notions voisines qui lui sont intimement liees. Dans cette demarche, nous examinons l’association entre l’environnement organisationnel, l’intrapreneuriat et la performance des entreprises. Nous avons travaille sur un echantillon de 112 entreprises operant sur un large eventail d’industries implantees dans la region de Sfax, poursouligner l’impact determinant des dimensions environnementales a l’implementation de l’intrapreneuriat. Nous explorons, par ailleurs, l’effet moderateur de l’environnement sur la relation entre les activites intrapreneuriales et la performance des entreprises. Nos resultats revelent que les pratiques intrapreneuriales, a l’exception des activites de Corporate Venturing, peuvent etre une source de rentabilite et de croissance a court et a moyen termes. Ils soulignent aussi trois antecedents majeurs aux activites intrapreneuriales, notamment, le dynamisme, la demande de nouveaux produits et les changements defavorables. Notre recherche a permis aussi de prouver que la relation entre l’intrapreneuriat et la performance des entreprises est moderee par l’hostilite percue de l’environnement. Les entreprises qui poursuivent l’intrapreneuriat dans des environnements hostiles, realisent des profits et une croissance moins eleves. Nonobstant, une importante litterature a mis en avant une relation positive entre l’intrapreneuriat (ou l’entrepreneuriat au sein des organisations existantes) et la performance des entreprises en termes de croissance et de rentabilite. Notre contribution consiste a tester la realite de cette allegation dans le contexte tunisien. more...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of entrepreneurs' dispositional optimism on small business firm efficiency in the Tunisian context. Using a stochastic frontier analysis technique adjusted to an entrepreneur dispositional optimism bias, we estimate the efficiency score and then we demonstrate that the inefficiency term is explained by entrepreneur dispositional optimism. Our data consists of 67 small firms between 2008 and 2012. Our results highlight that other entrepreneurial characteristics and social network can explain technical efficiency. more...

La sureducation ou le declassement d’une main-d’oeuvre de plus en plus instruite constitue un phenomene social d’actualite qui a attire les differentes branches de recherche dans les sciences sociales. Ce papier tente d’analyser les determinants de la sureducation. Les resultats que nous avons degages revelent que les femmes sont plus touchees par la sureducation, le milieu social jouerait un role d’importance, l’allongement de la duree dans la file d’attente pousserait les diplomes a accepter un poste de moindre qualification et les licencies de l’enseignement superieur sont les moins touches par le phenomene. more...