Crossing language boundaries: Qualitative interviewing in international business

Welch, Catherine; Piekkari, Rebecca

doi:10.1007/s11575-006-0099-1

Cited by 209 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…While we do not claim to have privileged access to the participants' experiences, we believe that the existing commonalities allowed us to establish a degree of rapport. At the same time, we were aware of the possibility that interviewing our peers potentially meant that the participants would wish to project a high level of professional standards whereas we as the researchers would be unwilling to engage with the findings in a critical manner (Welch and Piekkari 2006).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing in the academic field: Non-native English-speaking academics in UK business schools

Śliwa

Johansson

2013

Culture and Organization

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This paper explores the relationship between English language competence and the ability of an individual for whom English is a non-native language to function in UK academia. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of academic field and habitus and based on interviews with 54 non-native English speaking academics employed in UK business schools, we discuss the ways in which working in English as a non-native language influences foreign academics' performance of academic habitus and the level of their symbolic capital necessary for the achievement of success within UK HE. Our findings point to advantages and disadvantages associated with being a non-native English speaking academic, to strategies deployed by individuals as they strive to enhance their linguistic competence, and to the importance of language not merely as a tool of communication but as a key factor enabling individuals to perform academic habitus in the UK academic field.Keywords: academic habitus; Bourdieu; business schools; language; non-native academics IntroductionThe global significance of the English language, both historically and at present, has been analysed and assessed by scholars from different disciplines. Among extant writings, there is a strand of literature focusing on the use of English in contemporary organizational contexts

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing in the academic field: Non-native English-speaking academics in UK business schools

Śliwa

Johansson

2013

Culture and Organization

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“…Empirical projects of this scale and scope are particularly challenging to plan and carry out, as they require scholars to carefully reflect upon their methodological practices (Piekkari and Tietze 2011). Along these lines, Welch and Piekkari (2006) illustrate the difficulties of reaching shared understanding with interviewees when using foreign languages in qualitative interviewing. Chidlow et al (2014) provide helpful guidance how international business researchers can responsibly account for their translation decisions when managing multilingual datasets.…”

Section: Research Settings: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

2017

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A fast growing number of studies demonstrates that language diversity influences almost all management decisions in modern multinational corporations. Whereas no doubt remains about the practical importance of language, the empirical investigation and theoretical conceptualization of its complex and multifaceted effects still presents a substantial challenge. To summarize and evaluate the current state of the literature in a coherent picture informing future research, we systematically review 264 articles on language in international business. We scrutinize the geographic distributions of data, evaluate the field's achievements to date in terms of theories and methodologies, and summarize core findings by individual, group, firm, and country levels of analysis. For each of these dimensions, we then put forward a future research agenda. We encourage scholars to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to draw on, integrate, and test a variety of theories from disciplines such as psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience to gain a more profound understanding of language in international business. We advocate more multi-level studies and cross-national research collaborations and suggest greater attention to potential new data sources and means of analysis.

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“…This lack of sensitivity to language is rather paradoxical given Polkinghorne's (2005: 135) description of qualitative research as 'languaged data'. It also does not reflect the complexity of a qualitative research project, in which multiple translation decisions are faced: producing a target-language version of the interview guide, conducting the interview, transcribing the interview, analyzing the data and reporting interviewee quotations in the publication (Welch and Piekkari, 2006). …”

Section: Qualitative Research: Mostly Silent On Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Translation in cross-language international business research: Beyond equivalence

2014

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In this paper, we problematize the way translation has been treated in international business (IB) research. We start by conducting an interpretive content analysis of both qualitative and quantitative cross-language studies published in four core IB journals over the course of a decade. Our analysis shows the dominance of a technicist view of translation associated with the equivalence paradigm. In contrast, we advocate a shift to a more contextualized approach informed by theoretical developments in translation studies. More specifically, we focus on two theoretical perspectives -skopos theory and cultural politics -which offer related but distinct approaches to rethinking equivalence. We conclude by advocating that the translation process be reframed as a process of intercultural interaction, rather than a lexical transfer of meaning. This reconceptualization would, we argue, open up what is currently a 'black box' in most IB studies. The contextualized approach that we offer has the potential not just to enrich the findings of studies, but also provide insights that are of multidisciplinary relevance.

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Crossing language boundaries: Qualitative interviewing in international business

Cited by 209 publications

References 28 publications

Playing in the academic field: Non-native English-speaking academics in UK business schools

Playing in the academic field: Non-native English-speaking academics in UK business schools

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Translation in cross-language international business research: Beyond equivalence

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