IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v92y2024icp333-350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does linguistic diversity matter? The case of trade credit

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Jie
  • Long, Zhineng
  • Chen, Liang
  • Li, Wanli

Abstract

Language, as an important cultural carrier and communication tool, plays an important role in commercial and trading activities. We provide a novel evidence on the impact of linguistic diversity on corporate trade credit by exploiting the data of Chinese dialects. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2021, we find that there is a negative correlation between linguistic diversity and the usage of trade credit. The mechanism analysis shows that supplier concentration, formal legal environment and social trust help to overcome language barriers and reduce the risk of default, thus weakening the negative impact of linguistic diversity on trade credit. Moreover, developed financial systems will weaken the negative impact of linguistic diversity on trade credit. This study not only enriches our understanding about the determinants of trade credit from the perspective of language but also provides insights on the impact of language on corporate behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Jie & Long, Zhineng & Chen, Liang & Li, Wanli, 2024. "How does linguistic diversity matter? The case of trade credit," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 333-350.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:92:y:2024:i:c:p:333-350
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2024.02.052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024001266
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2024.02.052?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicolas Sauter, 2012. "Talking trade: language barriers in intra-Canadian commerce," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 301-323, February.
    2. Kevin Lang, 1986. "A Language Theory of Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(2), pages 363-382.
    3. Amin, S. & Murshed, S.M., 2022. "Diversity matters in the world of finance: does ethnic and religious diversity hinder financial development in developing countries," ISS Working Papers - General Series 692, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    4. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    5. Amol M Joshi & Nandini Lahiri, 2015. "Language friction and partner selection in cross-border R&D alliance formation," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(2), pages 123-152, February.
    6. Li, Ying & Han, Yue & Fok, Robert C.W., 2020. "Do cross-border mergers and acquisitions affect acquirers’ trade credit? Evidence from an emerging market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 423-439.
    7. Raymond Fisman & Daniel Paravisini & Vikrant Vig, 2017. "Cultural Proximity and Loan Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(2), pages 457-492, February.
    8. Franz R. Hahn, 2014. "Culture, Geography and Institutions: Empirical Evidence from Small‐scale Banking," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(577), pages 859-886, June.
    9. Wei Feng & Yanrui Wu & Yue Fu, 2021. "Dialect Diversity and Foreign Direct Investment in China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(2), pages 49-72, March.
    10. Raymond Fisman & Inessa Love, 2003. "Trade Credit, Financial Intermediary Development, and Industry Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 353-374, February.
    11. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    12. M. Keith Chen, 2013. "The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, and Retirement Assets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 690-731, April.
    13. El Ghoul, Sadok & Zheng, Xiaolan, 2016. "Trade credit provision and national culture," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 475-501.
    14. Fabbri, Daniela & Klapper, Leora F., 2016. "Bargaining power and trade credit," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 66-80.
    15. Deqiu Chen & Li Li & Xuejiao Liu & Gerald J. Lobo, 2018. "Social Trust and Auditor Reporting Conservatism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1083-1108, December.
    16. Peter H. Egger & Andrea Lassmann, 2015. "The Causal Impact of Common Native Language on International Trade: Evidence from a Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 699-745, May.
    17. Smith, Janet Kiholm, 1987. "Trade Credit and Informational Asymmetry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 863-872, September.
    18. Liu, Qigui & Luo, Jinbo & Tian, Gary Gang, 2016. "Managerial professional connections versus political connections: Evidence from firms' access to informal financing resources," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 179-200.
    19. Helene Tenzer & Markus Pudelko & Anne-Wil Harzing, 2014. "The impact of language barriers on trust formation in multinational teams," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(5), pages 508-535, June.
    20. Fu, Yishu & Liu, Chunbo & Qin, Zhenjiang, 2021. "Does CEO-chairman dialect similarity affect stock price informativeness for Chinese listed firms?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    21. Li, Wanli & Xu, Xixiong & Long, Zhineng, 2020. "Confucian Culture and Trade Credit: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    22. Xia, Changyuan & Zhang, Xiaowei & Cao, Chunfang & Xu, Nan, 2019. "Independent director connectedness in China: An examination of the trade credit financing hypothesis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 209-225.
    23. Bian, Wenlong & Ji, Yang & Zhang, Hao, 2019. "Does dialect similarity add value to banks? Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 226-241.
    24. Wu, Wenfeng & Firth, Michael & Rui, Oliver M., 2014. "Trust and the provision of trade credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 146-159.
    25. Li, Xiaorong & Wang, Steven Shuye & Wang, Xue, 2019. "Trust and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 224-248.
    26. Yang, Na & Zhang, Yuan & Yu, Lu & Wang, Jue & Liu, Xiaming, 2022. "Cross-border mergers and acquisitions, regional cultural diversity and acquirers’ corporate social responsibility: Evidence from China listed companies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 565-578.
    27. Ge, Ying & Qiu, Jiaping, 2007. "Financial development, bank discrimination and trade credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 513-530, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Qifa & Tan, Chao & Jiang, Cuixia & Zhao, Qinna, 2022. "Surname relationship and trade credit: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Xiu, Zongfeng & Liu, Ran & Feng, Pengshuo & Yin, Jingwei, 2023. "Does social culture matter for firms' access to trade credit? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Lai, Shaojie & Chen, Lihan & Wang, Qing Sophie & Anderson, Hamish, 2022. "Natural disasters, trade credit, and firm performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    4. Wenwu Cai & Xiaofeng Quan & Gary Gang Tian, 2023. "Local Corruption and Trade Credit: Evidence from an Emerging Market," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 563-594, July.
    5. Jiang, Fuxiu & Xia, Xiaoxue & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2021. "Does controlling shareholders' share pledging raise suppliers' eyebrows?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Li, Wanli & Xu, Xixiong & Long, Zhineng, 2020. "Confucian Culture and Trade Credit: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    7. Ding, Feng & Liu, Qiliang & Shi, Hanzhong & Wang, Wenming & Wu, Shan, 2023. "Firms' access to informal financing: The role of shared managers in trade credit access," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Kong, Dongmin & Pan, Yue & Tian, Gary Gang & Zhang, Pengdong, 2020. "CEOs' hometown connections and access to trade credit: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Zhou, Zhongsheng & Li, Zhuo, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and trade credit financing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    10. Fan, Rui & Pan, Jianping & Wang, Jenny Jing & Yu, Minggui, 2023. "Do government provided credit ratings enhance or impede a firm's access to trade credit?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    11. Bai, Min & Cai, Jifu & Qin, Yafeng, 2021. "Ownership discrimination and private firms financing in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    12. Wang, Meng & Goodell, John W. & Huang, Wei & Jiang, Ying, 2023. "Trade credit provision and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. An, Jiafu, 2020. "Is there an employee-based gender gap in informal financial markets? International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    14. Li, Hong-Quan & Yang, Yang & Xue, Feng-Wan & Liu, Zhi-Yi, 2024. "Annual report readability and trade credit financing: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    15. Qin, Wei & Liang, Quanxi & Jiao, Yan & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Social trust and dividend payouts: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    16. Nam, Hocheol & Uchida, Konari, 2019. "Accounts payable and firm value: International evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 116-137.
    17. Cull, Robert & Xu, Lixin Colin & Zhu, Tian, 2009. "Formal finance and trade credit during China's transition," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 173-192, April.
    18. James, Hui Liang & Ngo, Thanh & Wang, Hongxia, 2023. "The impact of more able managers on corporate trade credit," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    19. Helene Tenzer & Siri Terjesen & Anne-Wil Harzing, 2017. "Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(6), pages 815-854, December.
    20. Stefano Filomeni & Michele Modina & Elena Tabacco, 2023. "Trade credit and firm investments: empirical evidence from Italian cooperative banks," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1099-1141, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Linguistic diversity; Language barrier; Trade credit; Informal finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:92:y:2024:i:c:p:333-350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.