Word from the editor

The 13 articles comprising this new regular issue of Management International are the result of several highly rigorous evaluation processes mobilising more than thirty evaluators in total – all of whom have our deepest gratitude. Many international management themes are addressed here: classics in the field, including how an international context affects family businesses with respect to issues like succession, conflict, divestment, strategy-making or equity holdings; but also more contemporary themes such as management in a post-Covid context, e-health, online behaviour and entrepreneurial ethics. The 11 articles are all thought-provoking and lend themselves to numerous areas of reflection that readers are heartily welcomed to explore. Jessica Lichy, Tatiana Khvatova and Mauro Jose de Oliveira’s contribution - “BRICs & clicks: an overview of the sociomateriality of social media consumption”- responds to a dearth of comparative research in Brazil, Russia, India and China on social media consumption and Internet user behaviour. Collecting data via surveys and interviews, the authors identify a variety of user behaviours and develop a digital culture model that reveals both the effects of cultural context on the socio-material environment and how such factors might explain internet user behaviour. The findings form a contemporary vision that can then be used to inform companies operating in these markets and help them exploit digital interactivity opportunities. In the view of Caroline Ruiller, Emmanuelle Fromont, Frédérique Chédotel and Gulliver Lux, contemporary literature may feature robust conceptualisations and validated scales measuring employee morale but little if anything has been done in relation to senior managers. Hence their article “CEOs’ mood: A conceptualisation proposal”, which uses 20 individual interviews (and 350 questionnaires) of French executives to suggest ways of conceptualising and measuring this particular class of respondents. The findings highlight specific differences in the ways that CEOs and employees construct their state of mind; the multidimensionality of such processes; the influence of personal and professional factors; a duality of emotional valence; and the non-gendered nature of this phenomenon. Roxana Ologeanu-Taddei, Cameron Guthrie and Samuel Fosso-Wamba’s article - “Beyond TAM: The impact of trust, privacy controls and trustworthiness on individual intent to use a Covid contract tracing app” – tries to overcome the paucity of empirical studies of factors influencing behaviour in this domain. The authors propose an integrated model rooted in technology acceptance, trust, privacy control and trustworthiness literature. The hypotheses are tested on a representative sample of 1,000 French citizens who have installed the app in question. The findings start with the discovery that trust not only has a strong and direct effect on usage intentions but also mediates the relationship between ease of use and intentionality. Other findings include the influence of reliability on perceived usability, and of privacy controls on perceived utility. François Grima, Pauline de Becdelievre and Ludovic Taphanel’s article – evocatively entitled “Coping with professional misidentification: The case of slashers in France” – is a qualitative research paper that uses interviews to ascertain the forms of misidentification experienced by a sample of 38 slashers along with the different ways they have found to manage such situations. The findings reveal that various types of professional misidentification produce effects that can differ in intensity terms. Three response strategies are identified: militancy; a search for authenticity; and clandestinity. Slashers tend to proactively seek validation for their dual professional identities, mobilising towards this end whatever relational, economic and academic resources they have available. The paper enhances understanding of identity dynamics – both for one’s self and for others – which enriching current debates about new forms of employment. Hedi Yezza, Didier Chabaud and Céline Barrédy’s article - “Conflict dynamics, context and family structures …