Language management strategies and Slovenian SMEs

Rižnar, Igor; Kavčić, Klemen

doi:10.1504/ijil.2017.081955

Cited by 2 publications

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“…According to the report, one in four companies examined in the uk said they had lost business opportunities due to the lack of foreign language skills. Rižnar and Kavčič (2017) and Rižnar and Rybnicek (2017) showed in their 2016 study that 58 of Slovenian smes (and 77 of Austrian smes) believed there is a link between the use of foreign language skills and export performance. 53 of Slovenian and 48 of Austrian smes believed that their investment in language skills has a significant return.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Management Strategies and Slovenian SMEs: An Update on Recent Developments

Rižnar

Puntar

2023

MGT

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In line with numerous studies, export success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could be considerably improved were companies aware of the importance of foreign language skills among their employees. In other words, many business opportunities are lost within the European Union because of the lack of language skills. Many authors report that adopting a language management strategy is linked to a significant increase in companies' export sales. The ELAN (Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise) findings should also be considered because of the relatively high importance of SMEs in providing employment. This article investigates, by means of a questionnaire sent to 1499 Slovenian exporting SMEs from various industries, how aware these companies are of the ELAN findings, and which language strategies they have implemented in their business operations. The findings of our 2021 study revealed that Slovenian exporting SMEs are slowly becoming more aware of the benefits of language management strategies, but that some improvements are nevertheless still possible.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Management Strategies and Slovenian SMEs: An Update on Recent Developments

Rižnar

Puntar

2023

MGT

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Strategic communication across languages in business environments

Bruen

Buckley

2022

European Journal of Language Policy

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There has been little research focusing on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly those in anglophone contexts, approach language management with a resultant lack of understanding hindering language policymaking at national levels. Therefore, this study assesses the extent to which a sample of thirty-eight SMEs, fifteen in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and twenty-three in Northern Ireland, have a language management strategy (LMS), that is, a plan of action enabling them to communicate across languages with suppliers and/or customers abroad. The survey also explored the attitudes of the SMEs toward adopting a strategic approach to language management focusing on four interrelated elements: first, whether the SMEs felt they needed an LMS; second, how effective they regarded their communication with speakers of languages other than English to be; third, their views on whether they had missed a business opportunity owing to a lack of language capacity; and fourth their perceptions regarding whether language was a factor in choosing export markets or suppliers. The results indicate that 16% of the SMEs report having an LMS, 33% of those in the RoI and 4% of those in Northern Ireland (NI). The analysis of the responses further revealed that 45% of all respondents engaged, in some form, with languages other than English, albeit often in an apparently ad hoc manner. The article discusses the findings and considers the supports and policy initiatives likely to assist SMEs in developing LMSs in these predominantly anglophone (European Union and non-European Union) contexts.

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Language management strategies and Slovenian SMEs

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Language Management Strategies and Slovenian SMEs: An Update on Recent Developments

Language Management Strategies and Slovenian SMEs: An Update on Recent Developments

Strategic communication across languages in business environments

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