Word from the editor

This new issue of Management international (Mi) is comprised of eleven articles selected according to the review’s customarily rigorous submission evaluation process, translating in turn the commitment and professionalism of our cohort of more than 30 reviewers, to whom we are eternally grateful. Reflecting the great diversity of themes that international management academia addresses nowadays, the issue transcends more traditional items such as international finance and cooperative networks analysis to cover a host of new topics, including territorial entrepreneurship, early and rapid internationalising firms, participatory design’s usefulness in improving public services quality, the organisation of multi-member cooperatives and the impacts of artificial intelligence. We are confident that readers will thoroughly enjoy exploring all these highly enriching topics! Synopses of articles featuring in this issue. In “Does participatory design thinking create significant and sustainable public value? The case of the Lezoux media library”, Pascal Arnaud notes the incompleteness - in public value creation terms - of existing literature relating to the design-driven effects of public service methods, such as the latter are currently being conceptualised. The author uses the example of a cultural services department operating within a local authority comprised of rural communities to test the SERVQUAL model as well as the public marketing concepts that are associated with it. He then goes on to discuss what happens when a participatory design thinking methodology is applied, discovering that the end result has been a significant and lasting increase in the department’s perceived helpfulness, social cohesion and democratic character. Camille Henrion’s article “The role of a meta-organiser in territorial entrepreneurship” starts by noting the proliferation of local initiatives where public, private and civil society actors leverage territorial resources and in so doing drive these spaces’ development in job creation, transition and resilience terms – a phenomenon that the Banque des Territoires (2017) calls “territorial entrepreneurship”. The article analyses the structuring of a meta-organiser whose goal is to create an environment lending itself to such outcomes. This is a key function, at least theoretically, although deeper analysis reveals that it also suffers from practical limitations. The mismatch between funding and managerial frameworks, on one hand, and the function’s deployment by a SCIC investment unit, on the other, creates both the kinds of cooperation problems that often arise when multiple independent organisations interact as well as consequential psychosocial risks. The article concludes by discussing the issues at stake whenever a function of this nature is being professionalised. Roula Masou and Sandrine Fournier’s article “Non-permanent teachers: Integration challenges in French universities” mobilises a survey of visiting lecturers to discuss the strategic issues that precariousness creates in a French university context. As per a qualitative methodology, data was collected via participant observation, semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire. The findings make it possible to characterise the challenges encountered by non-permanent teaching staff members, expressed in terms of their subjectivity, professional relationships and organisational involvement. The ensuing discussion refocuses on the fragility as well as the personal and professional injustices suffered by individuals in such situations, intimating a need for new managerial practice within universities. Pierre-Louis Meuric and Véronique Favre-Bonté’s article “Growth factors for early and rapid internationalsing firms” starts by noting the numerous constraints that weigh on fast-growing internationalised organisations, justifying in turn the scientific utility of applying a Dynamic Capabilities approach, if only because it is better placed to account for the cross-border trajectories of companies seeking to operate in uncertain and dynamic markets. The article uses eight case studies to develop a micro-foundation-based modeling capable of apprehending the reasons why certain companies experience rapid international growth. In their article “Organisational and managerial innovation …