Purpose – The paper of this paper is to explore the usage patterns of e-journals in French business schools. Design/methodology/approach – The paper exploits COUNTER-compliant usage statistics from a nationwide usage study with data from journal collections of an international academic publisher. Findings – With regard to online collections, the usage appears to be relatively intensive, especially when compared to usage statistics from universities in the same fields. This result may reflect an emerging research activity in business schools and a projected and required international orientation. However, the study also reveals important differences between schools, a fact that should not be overestimated because of the small sample size, even if the sample is a representative of French business schools. Research limitations/implications – The paper uses empirical data from a national usage study to identify specific patterns in business schools. It does not integrate qualitative survey data or deep log file analysis. Originality/value – Very few studies provide empirical evidence of e-journal usage in business schools. The paper enhances the knowledge on usage in specific environments in higher education. This is the first usage study with French business schools.