The effects of linguistic skills on the export performance of French, German and Swedish SMEs

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New study demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, English does not suffice in economic relations as many tenders are lost through lack of skills in local languages.

The study, carried out by Ingela Ben Habib, linguist (University of Göteborg, Sweden), doctor in psychology (University of Paris XII, France), in collaboration with the Industrial Development Centres (IUC, Industriella Utvecklingscentra Sverige AB), demonstrates that multilingualism and economic competitiveness are closely linked.

Swedish, French and German SMEs all use multilingualism as a strategy for exportations to varying degrees. However, only 27% of Swedish SMEs have a multilingual export strategy, compared to 68% of Danish SMEs, 63% of German SMEs and 40% of French SMEs.

It would appear that this has an effect on export performance. The percentage of companies that declare they have missed out on exportation contracts due to a language barrier were much higher in Sweden (20%) than in Denmark (4%), Germany (8%) and France (13%).

More information on www.iuc.se