Marie Carpenter

Marie Carpenter is professor of strategy at Institut Mines-Télécom Business School in Paris and vice-president of the Academic-Industry Research Network. She has been researching the telecommunications industry since 2000 when she joined the 4th EU Framework project “Corporate Governance, Innovation and Economic Performance in the EU” managed by William Lazonick and Mary O’Sullivan at INSEAD. As part of this project, she investigated the evolving role of the stock market in the optical networking industry. Her book entitled “La bataille des télécoms. Vers une France numérique” (“The battle to build a digital France”) was published in France in February 2011. Based on two years of research in presidential and company archives as well as fifty interviews with key decision-makers, the book analyses the rollout of the French digital network and the parallel development of a significant number of innovative products and services during the 1970s and 1980s. These include the “Minitel” telematics ecosystem, the “Télécom 1” satellite, the “X25” data transport network and smart card technology initially commercialised in telephone cards for public phones in France. Parallels are made with today’s need for investment to build tomorrow’s fibre-optic networks. She is currently part of the French team working on the 7th EU Framework project, FINNOV, investigating “The role of finance in growth, employment and competitiveness in Europe” (http://www.finnov-fp7.eu/). She previously conducted research in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries and her research has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Gérer et Comprendre and Industrial and Corporate Change.