French craftsmanship: a literature review
With almost 1,5 million companies, craft industry is one of the pillars of the French economy. Among craftspeople, two categories of companies coexist: the traditional one, which represents most of the craft industry, and the entrepreneurial one, which represents a few percent of craft companies. To date, no synthesis of the management literature on craftsmanship has been carried out, and it seems important to take stock of what is known about these enterprises. We propose in this article a review of the literature on the French craft industry. Observation is quite astonishing: management research focuses on entrepreneurial businesses, which are a minority, while very little research has been conducted on traditional ones. We identify, in the literature, the elements that can drive the manager to take a more entrepreneurial path. We conclude this article with recommendations for future research, particularly on the identity of craftspeople that should be deeper investigated, and about the management difficulties of traditional craftspeople, which researchers mention, without ever having explained them.