Résumé
The management of the health crisis has highlighted the need to adapt processes and to manage as closely as possible to the organizations in the territories. In this context, French local authorities have been mobilized, to support local economic activity. The regions are doubly concerned. They act as leaders in the economic development of the territory and are the relays of the state measures as territorial actors. The action of the regions in terms of economic development can be analyzed through their organizational agility and their ability to play a dynamic role with businesses.Agility is the ability to adapt quickly to unexpected changes in the environment, while maintaining strategic, operational, and human continuity. The work of Nijssen and Paawe (2012), can illustrate the case of French administrative regions. Organizational agility can thus be studied in terms of workforce change (Dyer, Ericksen, 2006), organizational learning (Wright et al., 2001), and highly adaptive organizational infrastructure (Dyer, Ericksen, 2003).Moreover, the regions have positioned themselves as major players in the territorial entrepreneurial ecosystem. Entrepreneurial ecosystem is defined as the interacting components of entrepreneurial system, which fosters new firm creation in a specific regional context (Neck et al., 2004). Isenberg (2011) highlights six domains within Entrepreneurial ecosystem (human capital, markets, policy, finance, culture and supports) that contain twelve core components. The literature has focused on identifying the actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Suresh and Ramraj (2012) identify the different actors in an entrepreneurial ecosystem as a range of stakeholders with varying objectives and expectations. However, as Spigel (2015) reminds us, the analysis of the interactions between the components of this ecosystem deserves further investigation. The role of the public actor in the entrepreneurial ecosystem has been researched, including public actor support for entrepreneurship (Acs et al., 2016; Neck et al., 2004), which has largely translated into public funding of incubators in fostering the emergence of an entrepreneurial coaching ecosystem (Theodoraki et al., 2018). But the government component has been little studied. Macke and Mayer (2016) identify a gap in the literature here. The purpose of this paper is to explore this gap and to study the issue of organizational agility in a particular context: that of local government support to businesses in two French regions (Sus Provence Côte d’Azur and Occitanie) in the context of health crisis management. The results of our research indicate in particular that the organizational agility of the communities studied favored the maintenance of an entrepreneurial dynamic and beyond generated a form of resilience. ReferencesACS, Z.; STEBRO, T.A.; AUDRETSCH, D., DAVID, T.; ROBINSON, D. (2016), “Public policy to promote entrepreneurship: a call to arms”, Small Business Economics, 47, 35–51.ISENBERG D. (2011), The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Strategy as a New Paradigm for Economic Policy: Principles for Cultivating Entrepreneurship. Dublin: Institute of International European Affairs.MACK, E.; MAYER, H. (2016), “The evolutionary dynamics of entrepreneurial ecosystems”, Urban Studies, 53(10), 2118–2133.NECK, H. M.; MEYER, G.D.; COHEN, B.; CORBETT, A.C. (2004), “An entrepreneurial system view of new venture creation”, Journal of Small Business Management, 42(2), 190-208.SPIGEL, B. (2015). The Relational Organization of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. doi:10.1111/etap.12167THEODORAKI, C.; MESSEGHEM, K.; RICE, M.P. (2018), “A social capital approach to the development of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: an explorative study”, Small Business Economics, 51, 153–170. DYER, L.; ERICKSEN, J. (2006). “Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace Agility Through Workforce Scalability” CAHRS Working Paper, 06–12.DYER, L.; SHAFER, R. (2003), “Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace and Organizational Agility With People”, in PETERSON R.S.; MANNIX E.A. (ed.), Leading and Managing People in the Dynamic Organization, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 7-40.NIJSSEN, M.; PAAUWE, J. (2012). “HRM in turbulent times: how to achieve organizational agility?”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol.23, n°16, pp. 3315-3335.PIKE, A.; DAWLEY, S.; TOMANEY, J. (2010). “Resilience, adaptation and adaptability”. Cambridge Journal of Territories, Economy and Society, vol.3, n°1, pp. 59-70.WRIGHT, P.; DUNFORD, B.B.; SNELL, S.A. (2001), “Human Resources and the Resource Based View of the Firm”, Journal of Management, vol.27, n°6, pp. 701-721.