Multilingual Skills provide Export Benefits and Better Access to New Emerging Markets

The author analyses in a study the effects of linguistic skills on the export performance of German, French and Swedish SMEs. Contrary to popular belief, English does not suffice in economic relations as many tenders are lost through lack of skills in local languages. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly use the specific language of the country to which they export so as to gain ground in emerging markets. The study shows 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 present 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 language barriers were much higher in Sweden (20%) than in Denmark (4%), Germany (8%) and France (13%).