Towards a Richer Understanding of Language and Identity in the MNC: Constructing Cosmopolitan Identities Through “English”’

Management International Review, 63, 2023

Bringing in insights from sociolinguistics, this conceptual paper advances the theorizing on language and identity in the MNC, viewed as socially constructed by individuals in interaction when they cross fluid linguistic and geographical boundaries. The authors posit that the identities of global business professionals in the MNC are not intrinsically tied to nationality and native language, they are rather cosmopolitan and constructed in interactions in English as the working language (BELF: English as a Business Lingua Franca). They conceptualize the multilingual MNC as a social constellation – providing the context for processes of identity construction but also shaped by them.

The Open Access version of the paper is available on the publisher’s website https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11575-023-00504-6 and via the SharedIt link https://rdcu.be/c5NTH