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THE SME CONCEPT OF PIERRE-ANDRÉ JULIEN: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF PROXIMITY by Olivier Torres

Of all the numerous studies devoted to SMEs, those of the GREPME (SME research group) at Trois-Rivières, directed by Pierre-André Julien, are of central importance for both historic and institutional reasons. The GREPME was effectively one of the very first research groups to focus on SMEs in the French-speaking world. It is also behind the creation, in September 1988, of the Revue Internationale PME (an academic journal with peer-review, devoted to research into SMEs) and the AIREPME (an international research association in the fields of entrepreneurship and SMEs). The AIREPME is the main French-speaking association for this field, and is composed of more than one hundred researchers from around twenty countries throughout the world. Every two years, it organises the CIFEPME (international congress for French-speakers on entrepreneurship and SMEs). Several epistemologists (Kuhn, 1970; Chalmers, 1987 and so on) have shown that scientific research is a social activity that is subject to the effects of networks, whose structural elements are, in our opinion, the creation of a journal and the organisation of a conference. As the GREPME is behind these numerous creations, it is hardly surprising to note that the group’s work is of key significance, at least in the French-speaking world. To be considered as a world leader in research, however, it is not enough to create or manage scientific “containers” such as research associations and academic journals. The content of these containers must also be provided. This is precisely what has made Julien such a key element in research into SMEs. For example, he is the only French-speaking researcher, to our knowledge, to have been published in all the
Piccola Impresa/Small Business n. 2, 2004

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English language or foreign journals devoted to SMEs (Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Entrepreneurship Theory and