Language and business strategies in small and big family business in a high power distance society

Ting, Su Hie and Lau, Evan (2013) Language and business strategies in small and big family business in a high power distance society. In: Proceedings of Annual Conference on Management and Social Science (ACMSS), Bangkok, Thailand., 16-19 April 2013, Bangkok Thailand.

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Abstract

Most research on family business conglomerates have been conducted from a business perspective but language is a factor that cannot be ignored in an ethnically-diverse society. Existing research on language use in businesses have focused on the roles of standard languages but neglected ethnic languages. The interaction of language and business strategies needs to be examined in a single study to uncover the intersection of two important variables in family business of the high power distance society. The two case studies compare the language as one of the business strategies of a small and a big family business. The specific aspects examined are the pathways of communication to find out the roles of various languages in different settings with different stakeholders, and the business strategies. In-depth interviews are conducted with the owners of the family business in Sarawak, Malaysia. The results are compared to outline the implications of the business structure on the language use and business strategies as well as the influence exerted by a high power distance society on the communication and business patterns.

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