Collective entrepreneurship and collective strategies: the case of tourism in France

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence and management of collective strategies between SMEs in the French tourism sector. The authors study how collective entrepreneurship appears in a territory, and how the implemented collective strategies evolve through time. This research is based on four cases studies. This research shows that these clusters can emerge according to two processes: collective entrepreneurship or institutional incitation, each one implying different coordination patterns. Moreover, it appears that these two management modes vary over time. So, three potential configurations may emerge: ‘stagnation’, ‘institutionalisation’, or ‘dis-institutionalisation’.