Michel Marchesnay
Michel Marchesnay
Michel Marchesnay, Professor Emeritus at the University of Montpellier (France), has served as president of two French-speaking international associations (AIMS, AIREPME) related to the academic fields of industrial economics, strategy, and entrepreneurship. He is a member of the editorial boards of several academic journals in these fields. He has authored, either alone or in collaboration with others, academic works and handbooks, as well as dozens of papers, articles, and conference papers. His research interests have successively focused on costing and budgeting practices (1965), dynamic capacities (1968), dynamic theory of the firm (1970), “meso” (intermediate) analysis (1975), SMEs, dependence, and “hypofirm” (1980), entrepreneurial strategy (1985), strategic grids (1990), typologies of entrepreneurs (1995), strategy of singularity (2000), hypermodernity (2005), pragmatism (2010), and managerial and entrepreneurial history. Medal from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières; the biennial Julien–Marchesnay Prize honors an eminent scholar in the field of SMEs and entrepreneurship.
ABSTRACT
Opportunity and opportunism are multifaceted concepts, as revealed in scholarly works. This pluralism stems from the variety of approaches, which this essay examines from three perspectives: semantic, historical, and pragmatic. First, the Greek and Latin roots shed light on the contrasting effects of three fundamental behaviors—hubris, metis, and phronesis—on opportunity, as an intent, and opportunism, as a practice. The second part addresses both “history” and “stories.” Early theorists on French entrepreneurship reveal distinct versions of opportunism, supported either by fictional narratives—such as Balzac’s novels—or by real-world cases, such as the Digicode story. The third part focuses on opportunity as a pragmatic and cognitive process, based on the entrepreneur’s own perceptions, viewing the entrepreneur as an idiosyncratic individual. Consequently, opportunity is not assessed either as a risky “windfall event” (a “flash of genius”) or as a deterministic discovery of “hidden markets.” It must be understood as resulting from conscious—or even unconscious—processes linked to each entrepreneur’s past experiences and cultural background.