IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijesbu/v23y2014i1-2p10-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transnationals in an English-speaking world

Author

Listed:
  • Ivan Light

Abstract

The dominance of the English language in the last half century has simplified globalisation and enabled more peoples to engage in transnational entrepreneurship than ever was possible in the past. Currently, transnational entrepreneurs need only English language competence to undertake the work of knitting together geographically and linguistically distant regions and countries. Although everywhere an elite skill, English language competence is now widespread in every region of the world. Therefore, linking two non-English-speaking countries now requires only one language, English. In the past, when middleman minorities undertook international trade, that same linkage required mastery of three language: the language of the exporter, the language of the middlemen and the language of the importer. English language dominance is a cultural resource that abets globalisation, but some evidence suggests a peculiar asymmetry arises when English-speaking countries export to non-English-speaking countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivan Light, 2014. "Transnationals in an English-speaking world," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 23(1/2), pages 10-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:23:y:2014:i:1/2:p:10-26
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=65307
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lloyd L. Wong & Michele Ng, 2002. "The emergence of small transnational enterprise in Vancouver: the case of Chinese entrepreneur immigrants," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 508-530, September.
    2. repec:bla:scotjp:v:49:y:2002:i:5:p:507-25 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Gould, David M, 1994. "Immigrant Links to the Home Country: Empirical Implications for U.S. Bilateral Trade Flows," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 302-316, May.
    4. James E. Rauch & Joel Watson, 2004. "Network Intermediaries in International Trade," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 69-93, March.
    5. James E. Rauch & Vitor Trindade, 2002. "Ethnic Chinese Networks In International Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 116-130, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amir Maghssudipour & Marco Bellandi & Annalisa Caloffi, 2023. "The role of language in international trade and the “made in Italy”," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(3), pages 677-702, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isaac Baley & Laura Veldkamp & Michael Waugh, 2016. "Information globalization," Economics Working Papers 1529, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Feb 2019.
    2. Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2017. "Anti-Migration as a Threat to Internationalization?," Ratio Working Papers 302, The Ratio Institute.
    3. Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2018. "Do Migrants Facilitate Internationalization? A Review of the Literature," Working Papers 2018:11, Örebro University, School of Business, revised 19 Dec 2019.
    4. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Jullien, Bruno & Klimenko, Mikhail, 2021. "Language, internet and platform competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    5. Baley, Isaac & Veldkamp, Laura & Waugh, Michael, 2020. "Can global uncertainty promote international trade?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Chung, Henry F.L. & Tung, Rosalie L., 2013. "Immigrant social networks and foreign entry: Australia and New Zealand firms in the European Union and Greater China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 18-31.
    7. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    8. Isaac Baley & Laura Veldkamp & Michael E. Waugh, 2019. "Might Global Uncertainty Promote International Trade?," NBER Working Papers 25606, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Jullien, Bruno & Klimenko, Mikhail, 2012. "Language, Internet and Platform Competition: the case of Search Engine," IDEI Working Papers 742, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    10. Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2018. "Anti-Migration as a Threat to Internationalization? A Review of the Migration-Internationalization Literature," GLO Discussion Paper Series 287, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. R White, 2009. "Immigration, Trade and Product Differentiation," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 14(1), pages 43-64, March.
    12. Li, Chen, 2015. "Do immigrants attract FDI? District-level evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113130, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Anthony Briant & Pierre-Philippe Combes & Miren Lafourcade, 2014. "Product Complexity, Quality of Institutions and the Protrade Effect of Immigrants," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 63-85, January.
    14. Jan Wiers & Didier Chabaud, 2022. "Bibliometric analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship research 2009–2019," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 441-464, December.
    15. Yuheng Lin & Dooruj Rambaccussing & Yu Zhu, 2024. "The impact of international students in the UK on the cultural goods trade," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2024 29, Stata Users Group.
    16. Roy Allen & John Rehbeck, 2019. "Assessing Misspecification and Aggregation for Structured Preferences," University of Western Ontario, Departmental Research Report Series 20194, University of Western Ontario, Department of Economics.
    17. David Law & Murat Genç & John Bryant, 2013. "Trade, Diaspora and Migration to New Zealand," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 582-606, May.
    18. Hande Aksöz Yılmaz, 2020. "The Impact of Foreign Trade on Immigration from Turkey to Germany: ARDL Bounds Test Approach," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 62(62), pages 123-143, December.
    19. Javorcik, Beata S. & Özden, Çaglar & Spatareanu, Mariana & Neagu, Cristina, 2011. "Migrant networks and foreign direct investment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 231-241, March.
    20. Marina Murat & María Luisa Recalde & Pedro Gabriel Degiovanni, 2015. "The education networks of Latin America. Effects on trade during and after the cold war," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 113, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:23:y:2014:i:1/2:p:10-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=74 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.