Language in International Business

(Research programme 2001-current)

One of the first barriers that companies face on the path of internationalisation is differences in natural languages. Surprisingly though, language in international business remains an ignored research field. Part of the reason may be that business researchers and linguists alike have been deterred by the cross-disciplinary nature of the subject. Another factor may be the pre-eminence of Anglophone researchers who have a reduced perception of the importance of language. A third factor might be the enormous influence of Hofstede. His work has dominated cultural research for the past decades and has been developed into a system for measuring cultural distance (Kogut & Singh, 1988, see The International Research Process) thereby providing international researchers with a practical, easy to use and "reliable" measure of culture. Sadly, the Hofstedian dimensions make no reference to language and the Kogut and Singh scale has eclipsed the earlier but more cumbersome cultural measure of Psychic Distance in which language difference was a crucial component.

However, perhaps the most serious barrier to language research in business has been the absence of clear conceptual frameworks and operationalisations. Researchers will not be able to dissect the nature and implications of language problems until they have answers to the questions "what exactly is it about language that creates the problem", "how can it be defined" and "how can it be measured"? These questions can only be answered within the context of the socio-linguistic theory that explains how the language barrier actually works. I am therefore working a conceptual paper dealing with these issues. An early version of this work was presented at the 2002 Academy of Management meeting and a paper focusing in HQ-subsidiary relationships was presented at the 2004 AoM Meeting and published in Cross-cultural Management: An International Journal. A paper on language management in MNCs was also published in Cross-cultural Management. These two papers generated much interest and were downloaded more than 600 times from my academic web site in the first four months.

Data from a large-scale international mail survey providing data for 175 subsidiaries (see International HRM & Staffing Policies and HQ-Subsidiary Relationships in MNCs) will allow us to assess the extent of the language barrier and the functional areas in which it is most important. It will also allow us investigate the impact of the language barrier on misunderstanding & conflict, power & influence in the MNC and the existence of parallel information networks. Finally, we will be able to test some preliminary hypotheses that link the language barrier to MNC decisions such as control mechanisms and entry modes.

In 2005 I have started a new project that investigates the impact of language on management practices within MNCs. This project links the work in programme 3 with this programme and would lead us from: "Do respondents subconsciously adjust their responses in a way that reflects the cultural values associated with the language of the questionnaire?" to "Do managers adjust their management style in a way that reflects the cultural values associated with the language in which they manage". Using a critical incident technique data have been collected with MBA students in 20 different countries. These data have so far been used to compare ranking and rating to study cross-cultural dfifferences. In addition, two experiments have been designed, one in the Netherlands and one in Melbourne that allow me to isolate the impact of language on decision-making. The first experiment has already been conducted and results show that language has an impact on the competitive behaviour of students: a prisoner’s dilemma game played in English leads to significantly more competitive behaviour than when the same game is played in Dutch. The resulting paper is currently under review at the Journal of Economic Psychology.

A second phase of this project aims to further develop and test the language barrier model developed by Alan Feely and myself. This involves both qualitative and quantitative work in subsidiaries and HQs of MNCs in Japan, and Germany. I have secured an ARC Discovery Grant of A$185,000 to conduct these projects in 2005-2007.

Related publications

Related online papers - Full list of publications

(Excludes working papers; * indicates a refereed journal article or research-based book chapter.)

1. * Harzing, A.W.K. and 26 collaborators (review) Ranking or rating: what is the best way to reduce response and language bias in cross-national research? under review.
2. * Akkermans, D.; Harzing, A.W.K.; Witteloostuijn, A. van (review) Cultural Accommodation and Language Priming. Competitive versus Cooperative Behavior in a Prisoner’s Dilemma Game, under review.
3. Zander, L.; Mockaitis, A.; Harzing, A.W.K. et al. (2008) Getting Closer to the Action: Examining Leaders’ Behavioral Intent with Globe’s Leadership Dimensions across 22 Countries, conference proceedings of the Australian New Zealand Academy of Management, Auckland, 2-5 December 2008.
4. Zander, L.; Mockaitis, A.; Harzing, A.W.K. et al. (2008) Explaining cross-national differences in leadership behavior with cultural syndromes: a 22-country study, paper presented at the Academy of International Business Annual Meeting, Milan, 30 June – 3 July 2008.
5. Akkermans, D.; Harzing, A.W.K.; Witteloostuijn, A. van (2008) Cultural Imprinting and Language Priming. Competitive versus Cooperative Behavior in a Prisoner’s Dilemma Game, conference proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the UK Chapter of the AIB, Portsmouth, 28-29 March.
6. * Harzing, A.W.K.; Feely, A.J. (2008) The Language Barrier and its Implications for HQ-Subsidiary Relationships, Cross-cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 49-61.
7. Harzing, A.W.K. and 26 collaborators (2007) Ranking and rating in native-language versus English-language questionnaires: A methodological comparison, conference proceedings of the EIBA annual meeting, 13-15 December, Catania, Italy.
8. Harzing, A.W.K. and 26 collaborators (2007) Ranking versus rating: What is the best way to reduce response and language bias in cross-national research?, conference proceedings of the ANZIBA annual meeting, 8-10 November 2007, Newcastle, Australia.
9. Harzing, A.W.K. (2005) The Language Barrier and its Implications for HQ-Subsidiary Relationships, paper presented at the third JIBS frontiers conference, Rotterdam, 28-30 September.
10. Feely, A.J.; Harzing, A.W.K. (2004) The Language Barrier and its Implications for HQ-Subsidiary Relationships, paper presented at the 64th Annual meeting of the Academy of Management, New Orleans, August 6-11.
11. * Feely, A.J.; Harzing, A.W.K (2003) Language Management in Multinational Companies, Cross-cultural management: an international journal, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 37-52.
12. Feely, A.J.; Harzing, A.W.K (2002) Forgotten and neglected - Language: the orphan of International Business research, paper presented at the 62nd Annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Denver, August 9-14.