IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/scaman/v26y2010i2p176-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intercultural communication in foreign subsidiaries: The influence of expatriates' language and cultural competencies

Author

Listed:
  • Peltokorpi, Vesa

Abstract

Summary Despite their dual impact on intercultural communication, scholarly discussions on languages and cultural values have evolved separately in international management literature. Building on the three communication zones theory (Du-Babcock & Babcock, 1996), which describes intercultural communication through three different language proficiency zones, the present study explores the influence of expatriates' host country language and cultural competencies on intercultural communication in foreign subsidiaries. In contrast to international management literature in which cultural values and languages have been treated independently, interviews in 58 Nordic subsidiaries in Japan show that expatriates' host country language and cultural competencies are accompanied by different challenges and opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Peltokorpi, Vesa, 2010. "Intercultural communication in foreign subsidiaries: The influence of expatriates' language and cultural competencies," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 176-188, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:26:y:2010:i:2:p:176-188
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522110000254
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guttormsen, David S.A., 2018. "Does the ‘non-traditional expatriate’ exist? A critical exploration of new expatriation categories," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 233-244.
    2. Fabian Jintae Froese & Kwanghyun Kim & Aileen Eng, 2016. "Language, Cultural Intelligence, and Inpatriate Turnover Intentions: Leveraging Values in Multinational Corporations through Inpatriates," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 283-301, April.
    3. Silke Roth, 2019. "Linguistic Capital and Inequality in Aid Relations," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 24(1), pages 38-54, March.
    4. Zhang, Ling Eleanor & Harzing, Anne-Wil, 2016. "From dilemmatic struggle to legitimized indifference: Expatriates’ host country language learning and its impact on the expatriate-HCE relationship," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 774-786.
    5. Liu, Xiaohui & Gao, Lan & Lu, Jiangyong & Wei, Yingqi, 2015. "The role of highly skilled migrants in the process of inter-firm knowledge transfer across borders," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 56-68.
    6. Dan Wang & Di Fan & Susan Freeman & Cherrie Jiuhua Zhu, 2017. "Exploring cross-cultural skills for expatriate managers from Chinese multinationals: Congruence and contextualization," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 123-146, March.
    7. Jesper EDMAN & Riki TAKEUCHI, 2021. "Do Japanese Expatriates Matter for Foreign Subsidiary Performance? A Role-Based Analysis of Three-Wave Panel Data," Discussion papers 21046, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Peltokorpi, Vesa, 2015. "Corporate Language Proficiency and Reverse Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Corporations: Interactive Effects of Communication Media Richness and Commitment to Headquarters," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 49-62.
    9. Alfredo Jimenez & Jonas Holmqvist & Diego Jimenez, 2019. "Cross-Border Communication and Private Participation Projects: The Role of Genealogical Language Distance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 1009-1033, December.
    10. Lauring, Jakob & Klitmøller, Anders, 2015. "Corporate language-based communication avoidance in MNCs: A multi-sited ethnography approach," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 46-55.
    11. Vesa Peltokorpi & Markus Pudelko, 2021. "When more is not better: A curvilinear relationship between foreign language proficiency and social categorization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(1), pages 78-104, February.
    12. LÁZÁR Tímea, 2020. "Students’ Foreign Language And Intercultural Communication Competencies Based On A Survey At The University Of Debrecen," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 540-550, July.
    13. Wang, Dan & Feng, Taiwen & Freeman, Susan & Fan, Di & Zhu, Cherrie Jiuhua, 2014. "Unpacking the “skill – cross-cultural competence” mechanisms: Empirical evidence from Chinese expatriate managers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 530-541.
    14. Peltokorpi, Vesa, 2020. "Host Country National Employees’ Prosocial Behavior toward Expatriates in Foreign Subsidiaries: A Common Ingroup Identity Model Perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    15. Peltokorpi, Vesa, 2015. "Foreign subsidiary top manager nationality and language policy: The moderating effects of subsidiary age and size," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 739-748.
    16. Wang, Qiu & Clegg, Jeremy & Gajewska-De Mattos, Hanna & Buckley, Peter, 2020. "The role of emotions in intercultural business communication: Language standardization in the context of international knowledge transfer," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    17. Li, Peng-Yu, 2018. "Top management team characteristics and firm internationalization: The moderating role of the size of middle managers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 125-138.

    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:scaman:v:26:y:2010:i:2:p:176-188. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/872/description#description .

    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.