Exploring Translanguaging in International Business. Towards a Comparison of Highly Context-Embedded Practices: Evidence from France and Finland

When translanguaging, interlocutors mobilize and combine multiple linguistic repertories, creating new words and expressions to improve comprehension. Our study uses empirical data on translanguaging practices in Finnish businesses with large exposure to Sweden, and in the subsidiary of a German multinational corporation located in France, to discuss if, to what extent, and how these patterns can meaningfully be studied across country contexts. Drawing on linguistics and cross-cultural management for novel approaches to the comparison of deeply embedded linguistic practices, we offer a more nuanced understanding of the micro-meso-macro nature of international business communication.