RESEARCH TOPIC:
The Effects of Language barrier on the Global Market
1.0. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Language in form of communication is highly important to buying and selling of goods and services. Yet communication relies upon a shared language, a pre-requisite that does not exist in many international business situations, and that may be where the problems start.
More than a decade ago, language barriers are the most significant operational problems identified in the global market.
Multinational companies and their subsidiaries are an increasingly important part of the global business landscape. In 2002, the sales of foreign subsidiaries of multinationals were more than twice as high as world exports, while in 1990 both were roughly equal. Some 870,000 foreign subsidiaries of about 64,000 parent firms contributed approximately $18 trillion to world sales in 2002, while the number of employees in foreign affiliates has more than doubled in the last decade (UNCTAD, 2003). Even, these impressive statistics do not convey the full picture in terms of language impact.
For instance, the majority of multinational parent companies are not domiciled in English-speaking countries. Second, the linguistic spread of their networks is widening as the larger multinationals are now present in 20 or more countries.
Finally, the host countries being targeted for future investments are increasingly in developing areas of the world, characterized by a shortage of parent company language skills.
One cannot escape the conclusion that in some way these problems of increasing communication intensity, increasing linguistic diversity, and increasing scale of operations must aggravate the problems presented by the language barrier.
This being the case, the problems should be manifested in distinguishable patterns in the way multinational companies adjust strategy, structure, and systems in order to cope. In this tune, the international management research community has so far done little to identify and study these patterns.
Very little research has investigated the impact of language diversity on global business. And this inadequate research is very unfortunate as work by some researchers in the field clearly shows that language is a very important issue in the global market.
Language barrier is a problems and or a source of frustration, dissatisfaction and friction between them and the global market. Also, there is an existence of language barrier in a transaction system, the buyers or the sellers are compounded with their sense of being “outcast”.
The most pronounced manifestation of the language barrier at work can be found in the relationship between a multinational parent company and its network of international subsidiaries, a relationship characterized by several distinguishing features.
However, in the research field the effects of language barrier on the global market had not been seriously dealt with. It is facile to state that language is a problem to multinational business, but researchers will not be able to dissect the nature and implications of these problems until they have an answer to the question “what precisely is it about language barrier in lieu of global market?
2.0. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
i. to identify language barrier in lieu of global market
ii. to analyse the effects of language barrier on the global market
iii. to provide practical solution to reducing the problems of language barrier on the global market
3.0. HYPOTHESIS
This is the statement created by researchers when they speculate upon the outcome of a research or experiment (Shuttleworth & Shuttleworth, 2015). It is a pairing down of the problem into something testable and falsifiable. For this study, the hypothesis is “Language barrier a problem of economy disintegration on the global scale”
4.0. ASSUMPTION
An assumption is an act of faith which does not have an empirical evidence to support (Apcmedia.com, 2015). Assumption here is “clarity of language is import to global market”
5.0. LIMITATIONS
The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or influenced the application or interpretation of the result of your study (Libguides.usc.edu, 2015). They are the constraints on utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which you choose to design the study and/or method used to established internal and external validity.
6.0. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
Research design is the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted. However, the research design to be adopted in this work is descriptive. This is the same as correlation research or observational study. This is a study that is not truly experimental. Here the information is collected without changing the environment and the contingent of the contingency situation involved in the social problem.
7.0. LITERATURE REVIEW
This is an essential preliminary task in order to acquaint oneself with the available body of knowledge in the area of study and interest. Literature review is an integral part of entire research process and makes valuable contribution to every operational step. In other words, literature review will bring one, clarity and focus to this research. Two, improve the methodology. Three, broaden the researcher’s knowledge. And four, brings about contextual findings. For example, the literature review could be presented in the form below.
Language is one of the major factors used to categorize others, possibly more important than ethnicity as it is an acquired characteristic and hence provides a more powerful indication of a person’s identity (Linguists and Johnson, 1981)
Anxiety and Uncertainty Management theory (1995), state that the degree of uncertainty in interpersonal interaction will be inversely correlated with language competence and will increase the tendency to over-estimate the importance of group membership on behaviour. Since global market is both a function of interpersonal and international transaction, language barriers are therefore likely to play a key role in the activities of buying and selling goods and services in all countries.
8.0. STUDY POPULATION
The totality of the all objects/subjects that falls within the framework of this study will the employees in selected organization and are going to be randomly selected within study area. No doubt the study would be carried out basically on the employees, sampling their opinion will be highly imperative to the achievement of the set aims and objectives.
9.0. SAMPLE FRAME
The sample frame in this study is the total percentage of the employees in the selected business organizations. In other words, this is the total population of the items, individuals and elements for the study.
10.0. SAMPLE SIZE
This sizing will be made handed in the selected business organization in other to create impartial findings, so as to effectively achieve the set aim and objectives of the study. The sample size will be the exact proportion of the sample frame that is studied. Since knowing the total number of business in the world is not certain, therefore, the research will consider the sampling size between 10 to 15% of the total population of the selected business organizations.
11.0. SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
Firstly, sampling technique is conducted following certain rules and regulation without human interference. It is noteworthy to identify the need to achieve the set aims of the study and the need to avoid any form of subjectivity and bias, a simple random selection approach will be used for this study. This study is tends to be cleaner because the respondents or the sampling objects are selected by prescribed regular interval.
12.0. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
A number of substantial proportions of intonations needed for the study will be drawn through questionnaire. It is essential to satisfy all the demands of the study and clarify any form of ambiguity. The questionnaire will consist of a set of questions presented to a respondent for answers. The respondents read the questions, interpret what is expected and then write down the answers themselves (Sharma, 2012).
13.0. DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
Processing and analysing data involves a number of closely related operations which are performed with the purpose of summarizing the collected data and organizing these in a manner that they answer the research questions (Ayub V.O & Ofulla 2013). Data generated for this study will be analyzed using appropriate descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. It will be based on the findings of the questionnaire administered. However, this research tends to make use of descriptive statistics.
14.0. REFERENCES
Internet Sources:
Apcmedia.com,. (2015). Retrieved 16 November 2015, from http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/CFOT-8BVQYQ/CFOT-8BVQYQ_R3_EN.pdf?sdirect=true
Libguides.usc.edu,. (2015). Limitations of the Study – Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper – Research Guides at University of Southern California. Retrieved 17 November 2015, from http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/limitations
Sharma, D. (2012). Data and sources to collect data & information. Diptisharma23.blogspot.com.cy. Retrieved 17 November 2015, from http://diptisharma23.blogspot.com.cy/
Shuttleworth, M., & Shuttleworth, M. (2015). Research Hypothesis – Testing Theories and Models. Explorable.com. Retrieved 16 November 2015, from https://explorable.com/research-hypothesis
Journal
Textbook:
Ayub V.O & Ofulla (2013), The Secrets of Hidden Knowledge: How Understanding Things in the Physical Realm Nurtures Life. ISBN 145820930X, 9781458209306, Abbott Press
Newspaper