To read this content please select one of the options below:

The entrepreneur-salaried employee-associate: An autonomous wage-earner or a dependent entrepreneur?

Justine Ballon (Department of Economics, University of Paris VII Diderot UFR Social Sciences, Paris, France)

Society and Business Review

ISSN: 1746-5680

Article publication date: 30 August 2019

Issue publication date: 27 November 2019

325

Abstract

Purpose

The increasing number of self-employed workers in France transforms the historical work relationship. In this perspective, the case of entrepreneurs who works in Business and Employment Cooperatives (BECs) with the status of entrepreneur–employee–associate is studied. They combine two legal status of self-employed and employee which were previously legally and institutionally separated. BECs question the forms of relationships governing production and labor. This paper aims to determine to what degree this combination of relationships improves the autonomy of entrepreneurs and reduces the risks of autonomous activity.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative action research combined with a pragmatic approach using abductive reasoning was carried out in three BECs. It is based on participant observations and interviews.

Findings

The results show that three types of relationships are embedded in the labor relations of cooperative activity: the entrepreneurial relationship, the employment relationship and the associate member relationship. This configuration contributes to achieving autonomy in the organization of labor and the reduction of risks linked to entrepreneurial activity. However, the complexity of the embedded relations, the persistence of asymmetry and the contrast between the rules of cooperatives and companies limit the ambition of BECs.

Practical implications

They determine the ability of BECs to invent appropriate mechanisms to empower their entrepreneur members.

Originality/value

This study combines an action research stance with a pluridisciplinary approach. It offers new perspectives for understanding the mutations that modes of production and labor mobilization are going through in a period of change toward a post-Fordist paradigm.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Simon Nadel, K. Guillas-Kavan and Joe Fenn for their great help.

This paper forms part of a special section “From business and society to business for society: coming (back) to a sounder relation between knowledge and organization”, guest edited by Rémi Jardat, Jérôme Méric and Corinne Vercher-Chaptal.

Citation

Ballon, J. (2019), "The entrepreneur-salaried employee-associate: An autonomous wage-earner or a dependent entrepreneur?", Society and Business Review, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 415-430. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-07-2018-0077

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles