In international business, firm-level language choices are important questions that require scarce organizational resources to deal with external stakeholders’ diverse preferences. While language choices have a major impact on the success and survival of SMEs, current knowledge of these choices is mainly based on data from MNEs, which constitutes a research gap. We help address this gap by exploring from a social exchange perspective why and how decision-makers in international small firms choose between “English-only” and “multilingual” approaches to language. We find that when evaluating the cost and benefits of these alternatives, decision-makers aim for high levels of both external and internal resource sharing. However, external language diversity and limited internal availability of relevant language competencies force them into difficult trade-offs.

中文翻译：

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探索国际小企业的语言选择困境：纯英语与多语言的社会交换视角

在国际商务中，公司层面的语言选择是一个重要问题，需要稀缺的组织资源来处理外部利益相关者的不同偏好。虽然语言选择对中小企业的成功和生存有着重大影响，但目前对这些选择的了解主要基于跨国企业的数据，这构成了研究空白。我们从社会交换的角度探讨国际小公司的决策者为何以及如何在“纯英语”和“多语言”语言方法之间进行选择，从而帮助解决这一差距。我们发现，在评估这些替代方案的成本和收益时，决策者的目标是实现高水平的外部和内部资源共享。然而，外部语言的多样性和内部相关语言能力的有限性迫使他们做出艰难的权衡。