Prior research shows that in multilingual teams, using a foreign language may adversely affect various work processes and outcomes, resulting in a language barrier. Using a qualitative interview-study approach, this study explores whether such barrier effects of foreign language use (FLU) also apply to team creative processes. The results show that FLU-induced barrier effects may extend to team creative processes and can hinder them—especially if language skills are lacking—due to reduced comprehension, increased workload and complexity, and foreign language anxiety. In addition, extending prior research, this study documents unexpected positive springboard effects of FLU on team creative processes. At the individual level, FLU may prompt linguistic detours, multiplicity of meanings, and alternative (e.g., acoustic, visual) associations. At the team level, spillover effects from the language domain may effectuate a generally more error-tolerant and less time-pressured team environment. Overall, this study enriches literature on language in international business by uncovering counterintuitive springboard effects of FLU and by integrating it with literature on collective creativity. It adds to research on collective creativity by advancing FLU—a characteristic central to international business—as a boundary condition of team-level creative synthesis, thereby illustrating the potential for cross-fertilization of these largely separate research fields. Finally, we highlight implications for international business practice.

先前的研究表明，在多语言团队中，使用外语可能会对各种工作流程和结果产生不利影响，从而导致语言障碍。本研究采用定性访谈研究方法，探讨外语使用 (FLU) 的这种障碍效应是否也适用于团队创意过程。结果表明，FLU 引起的障碍效应可能会延伸到团队的创意过程，并可能由于理解力下降、工作量和复杂性增加以及外语焦虑而阻碍团队创意过程，尤其是在缺乏语言技能的情况下。此外，本研究扩展了之前的研究，记录了 FLU 对团队创意过程的意外积极影响。在个体层面上，FLU 可能会引发语言迂回、意义的多重性以及替代性（例如听觉、视觉）关联。在团队层面，语言领域的溢出效应可能会实现一个总体上更容错且时间压力更小的团队环境。总体而言，本研究通过揭示 FLU 反直觉的跳板效应并将其与集体创造力文献相结合，丰富了国际商务语言文献。它通过推进 FLU（国际商务的核心特征）作为团队层面创造性综合的边界条件，增加了对集体创造力的研究，从而说明了这些基本上独立的研究领域交叉发展的潜力。最后，我们强调对国际商业实践的影响。