Management and organizational models of the European space Agencies: the results of an empirical study

The European Space Agencies (ESA) are going through a period of major organizational development and are making significant changes to their management tools. This development is strictly linked to changes due to a reformulation of the strategies of the Agencies in question. The aim of this paper is to show the extent and depth of such changes as concerns: strategy (the new strategies that the Space Agencies are adopting); organization (the new organizational models adopted); and, finally, management. An important area for investigation concerns the development of the model adopted by the individual Agencies within the field of Space activities, which is becoming an ever more important market where one can see exchange relationships operating alongside the traditional cooperation relationships. The results of the study underline well-defined types of change in progress and, therefore, the new managerial patterns that these changes could involve.