Founded in 1972 by the Ecole polytechnique, CRG (Management Research Center) is the first laboratoire dedicated to research in management to have been recognized by the CNRS in 1980. Since the 1^st of January 2015, it an active component of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Innovation - i3 - (UMR CNRS 9217) which includes teams from Mines Paris PSL and Telecom Paris. The CRG support and is supported by the Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) department, which coordinates all management teaching at École polytechnique in the engineering, MSc&T, Master's, Bachelor's and executive Master's cycles. The CRG comprises 13 researchers, 28 associate researchers, 23 doctoral and post-doctoral students, 9 administrative and technical staff, and regularly welcomes renowned foreign researchers. Etienne Minvielle and Cécile Chamaret are the director and deputy director. Alexandre Mallard is i3's director.

Theoretical orientations

Our research is conducted within the interdisciplinary framework of i3. As such, they are in line with the recently defined axes:

-Companies, organizations and Markets  faced to the contemporary challenge of responsabile innovation

-Theory, practice and politics of design and creative action

-Policies, instruments and Innovation for the ecological transition

-Innovating differently: alternatives, criticism and resistance to innovation

Within this framework, the research work of CRG members focuses on the following themes:

Strategy and organizational management of innovation. This involves studying forms of open innovation, entrepreneurship and the creative dynamics that accompany innovation. Similarly, organizational management requires an understanding of the challenges of new forms of collaboration (ecosystems, meta-organizations, Fab Labs, mega-projects). In a complementary way, innovation strategy leads to the definition of specific business models for the most recent technological advances (blockchain, AI, virtual reality, 3D printing). Finally, a conceptualization effort focuses on projects and exploration programs that shape the organizational management of innovation.  

The societal dynamics of innovation. These include mobility, in a quest to define managed societal innovation; health, in a definition of the links between technological and organizational innovation; sobriety, in a definition of counter-models; and major challenges and transition programs, particularly in their territorial dynamics.

Empowering innovation. This includes research into ethical finance, and efforts to frame the circular economy, the role of stakeholders, with a particular focus on forms of activism and expressions of resistance, and regulatory modalities such as accountability. Digital technology (AI and other related technologies) is at the heart of these analyses.

On all these themes, the development, discussion and redefinition of theories are based on the management issues facing companies and organizations, both public and private. Such an approach guarantees the scientific quality and relevance of the knowledge produced, and is congruent with that of the practitioners it studies, who proceed in the same way when seeking solutions to their problems. The aim is to study knowledge in action.

Influence

The type of research carried out at CRG has led to the emergence of new concepts and the redefinition of existing ones, which has resulted in international recognition. The CRG is at the origin of new concepts such as enterprise projectification or management situations, but it has also participated in the redefinition of several central concepts in various scientific fields, such as disruptive innovation, coopetition, large-scale singularity management, bundling, business models or commoditization.

Our research work is published in leading international management journals (California Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Energy Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Project Management Journal, Research Policy), and regularly in national journals (Revue Française de Gestion, Système d'information et Management, Gérer et Comprendre, Management, etc.). In addition, research is published in some of the most prestigious journals in the sector, such as Nature Medicine. Finally, the Centre's researchers have published a number of books in recent years (L'odyssée de Spring, How Business Organizes Collectively. An Inquiry on Trade Associations and Other Meta-Organizations, Méthodologie de la Recherche qualitative, Voyage au cœur du système de santé, La jungle de l'innovation, Les jeunes élites face au travail).

Contractual partnerships include : 3 chairs (IRSN, Sanofi, Technology for change); 2 ANR contracts (ShipTrase and Weshare); and numerous contracts with public or private organizations (Maif, Carrefour, APF France handicap, Renault, PSA, MBDA, CNES, Safran, Air France, Caisse des dépôts, E4C Total, CIEDS, etc.).

CRG participates in various international collaborations (e.g. Berkeley, Wharton School). Various researchers are editors-in-chief or editorial board members of scientific journals, and participate in various academic committees. The AEGIS innovation seminars and the Chair seminars regularly invite the most renowned international researchers in their field. Doctoral students come from France's leading universities (ENS, HEC, Polytechnique, MINES, Faculty of Medicine, etc.) and prestigious foreign universities (German, American, English, Spanish, Italian, etc.).