Both analysis of international trade and the knowledge resource theory of the firm imply that language skills should play a vital role in exporting. This may be apparent to large multinationals with sites in many different linguistic locations, but we show it is less obvious to smaller...

Many large and medium scale businesses operating in Sri Lanka at present have a global aspiration. Even if a company has a domestic focus, the employee base may comprise of individuals from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, with globalization having gathered pace, the...

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Teaching and researching in the multicultural/multilingual workplace -- Social goals and workplace English language training -- Language choice and economic gain -- Research questions and research methodology -- Outline of book -- Chapter 1. Survival,...

We analyze the words that firms use to describe their products to examine multiple-industry firm operations. Our central finding is that multiple-industry firms operate across industries with higher product language overlap. Multiple-industry firms also avoid industries with more distinct...

We study the importance of linguistic diversity in the workplace for workplace productivity. While cultural diversity might improve productivity through new ideas and innovation, linguistic diversity might increase communication costs and thereby reduce productivity. We apply a new measure of...