Title: The influence of the multilingual environment on multinational team decision-making processes: a literature review and proposed conceptual model

Authors: Albert Krisskoy; Matevž Rašković

Addresses: School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia ' Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract: Following a recent research call by leading authorities in the field of language-related international business (IB) research, we focus on multilingualism in multinational teams (MNTs). We approach multilingualism as an organisational environment (not as a skillset). We explore how the multilingual organisational environment influences decision-making processes within MNTs. We start with a bibliometric literature review which shows to what extent team-level aspects of language and multilingualism have been explored so far in the literature. This is followed by a focused literature review examining the influence of the multilingual organisational environment on decision-making processes within MNTs in a balanced manner (positive and negative outcomes) at both the individual and team level. We present a 2 × 2 multi-level dynamic conceptual model (with positive/negative effects) of multilingual environment phenomena, mechanisms and outcomes focusing on MNT decision-making. We finish with future directions and questions to guide research on multilingualism in MNTs.

Keywords: language; socio-linguistics; the multilingual environment; multinational teams; decision-making; cognition; bibliometric review; literature review; future research agenda.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2023.131705

European Journal of International Management, 2023 Vol.20 No.3, pp.341 - 368

Received: 15 Jan 2019
Accepted: 30 Jan 2020
Published online: 29 Jun 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article