A Case Study On Language Management Strategies Promoting Internationalization Of A Chinese Multinational Corporation

As the carrier of information,language permeates every aspect of international business activity.It is an important guarantee for transnational operation of multinational corporations.At present,more and more Chinese enterprises begin to seek the development of internationalization,and their overseas operations cover countries and industries with various cooperation modes.In this case,the transnational operation will be greatly impeded,and the quality of foreign investment will be severely affected by language barriers.Chinese enterprises need to solve language issues firstly if they want to go abroad.Therefore,language management should be an important part in the internationalization of Chinese enterprises.But now,research on language issues of enterprises is mainly from the American and European countries.This topic shows obvious regional features because of language diversity and maturity of international business activities of multinational corporations in these regions.But what about Chinese enterprises? What kinds of language service demands will Chinese enterprises meet in the process of going abroad? How do Chinese enterprises manage these language service demands? We have little idea about these questions.Therefore,this case study,with the help of relative theories from international business,sociolinguistics and management,focuses on the language management activity in a Chinese multinational corporation——Company A who has richest and the most mature experience in language management.This study mainly discusses these four issues: Firstly,what kinds of language service demands will be faced by Chinese multinational corporations? Secondly,how do Chinese multinational corporations solve these language service demands? Thirdly,how do language management strategies of Chinese multinational corporations improve their internationalization?This study chooses Company A as a single case through theoretical sampling and collects data by interviewing 13 key informants from the case company.The discoveries of grounded theory show that: Firstly,Chinese multinational corporations meet different language issues compared with multinational corporations of western countries because of the Chinese context.Namely,the language issues faced by Chinese multinational corporations may not be the communication barrier,it could be the language service demands because of the development of internationalization.Specifically,these language demands consist of translation,editing,desktop publishing,interpreting and localization.Secondly,when dealing with language service demands,Chinese multinational corporations will be influenced by confidentiality,accuracy,criticality of task,response speed and cost.Under these factors,Chinese multinational corporation choose a composite language management issues,such as insourcing and outsourcing to solve language issues faced by them.Compared with the single language management strategy,this kind of composite strategy will be more flexible and effective.When Chinese multinational corporations view language service demands as specific projects,they could use the process of project management to manage language service demands.Thirdly,the language management strategies can not only solve language service demands,but also improve the exterior competitiveness,interior competitiveness and basic competitiveness of the company,thereby promoting the internationalization of Chinese multinational corporations.This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions:In terms of theoretical contribution,firstly,this study lays special stress on analyzing the language service demands in the process of internationalization of Chinese multinational corporations and the way of managing them,rather than centering on communication.This study not only analyzes the influence factors and the formulation of language management strategies of multination corporations,but also illustrates the implementation process of the language management strategies.This study replenishes the effect of language management of multinational corporations.Secondly,this study develops the language management theory in sociolinguistics.It is an empirical study on the language management of multinational corporations at organizational level,turning the core concept of language management from discourse management to the management of language service demands.The features of language management have been changed as well.This study provides useful supplements to the theory of language management process.Thirdly,this study promotes interdisciplinary development of language studies in international business.By integrating the theory of organizational learning and the theory of knowledge management when analyzing the whole process of language management of Chinese multinational corporations,this study finds that the language management of Chinese multinational corporations reflects the features of organizational learning.At the same time,language is the carrier of information and knowledge,therefore,the language management of multinational corporations is a kind of knowledge management in nature.At last,this study proposes a model of language management of Chinese multinational corporations based on organizational learning and knowledge management perspectives.The whole process of Chinese multinational corporations could be summed up like this “noting language service demands,inventing solutions to language issues,choosing language management strategies,implementing language management strategies,publicizing language strategies and getting feedback of language management”.Language resources will be generated in some steps of language management of Chinese multinational corporations and will be transformed into language assets of the corporations.These language assets can be used by employees when they need.Besides,information technology plays a very important driving role in the whole process of language management in Chinese multinational corporations.The practical contributions are as follows: firstly,this study provides guidance for Chinese multinational corporations to analyze language issues with the help of the findings of this study,including the existing language demands and their contexts.Secondly,this study provides references for Chinese multinational corporations to make language management strategies according to the influence factors proposed in the study.Chinse multinational corporations could conduct self-evaluation firstly and then make an appropriate language strategy according to the results.Thirdly,this study provides methodology for Chinese multinational corporations to implement language strategies.Namely,Chinese multinational corporations could follow the process of project management to manage language issues when the language issues are taken as specific projects.