Changement et identité dans un champ organisationnel : le cas de l'édition française

The French publishing industry appears today as a mutating industry. However, it is also characterised by a high degree of stability. Based on this initial empirical observation, this work analyses this paradox through the lens of the institutional approach, studying in particular the role of identity in change and institutional maintenance, at the organisational field level. Three studies specify this problematic through particular perspectives and temporalities. The first study questions the long time of history in the light of the concept of imprinting, which helps to understand how characteristics from the past remain in the present time, despite major institutional changes. The second study how changes in publishing industry over the last forty years have had an effect on the identity prescribed by employers for their editorial staff, through a longitudinal analysis of job advertisements since 1980. Finally, the third study, by focusing on how French publishers have coped with the emergence of the digital book and implemented a strategy to control the development of this market, highlights the decisive role of identity in this effective institutional maintenance work.