posted on 2023-08-30, 15:07authored byTerry Mughan
Recent decades have seen rapid and significant changes in the field of international
business and management. Whilst the globalisation of economies and markets has led to
greater frequency of communication and interaction between companies and people of
different cultures and native tongues, academic research has struggled to keep pace with
the nature and consequences of better communication technologies and greater human
mobility. Much literature remains rooted in dated business and economic paradigms of
relevance to few companies and takes little account of new forms of behaviour.
This thesis examines the contribution of communication skills, in the form of cultural and
linguistic competence, to the development and performance of companies and managers,
primarily SMEs, in their international markets. Drawing on original data from regional
and international studies conducted over the last ten years, it illuminates the shift from the
exporting to the internationalising model, from the language training to the intercultural
model and from the training to the developmental/consulting model, as these changes
have manifested themselves as responses to the new global business environment. This
shift has been very visible in business reality and the policy sphere. Academic literature
has struggled to present these phenomena coherently and the author’s contribution to the
generation of new data and the development of new theories and perspectives is argued
and evidenced.
Over-simplification of the actual market operations of international SMEs, the role of
foreign language competence in business performance and the presentation of culture as a
key phenomenon are presented as original contributions by the author based on primary
research data. The place of this contribution in the literature is discussed and areas and
issues requiring further investigation are highlighted, particularly the need for more firm
and individual-based research, preferably of a longitudinal nature.