English as a Lingua Franca in Mainland China: An Analysis of Intercultural Business Communicative Competence

Abstract

China’s rapid expanding its collaboration with the rest of the world entails an urgent need of numerous talents with excellent intercultural communicative competence. Past research has shown that limited empirical studies are available on intercultural communicative competence in business contexts of Mainland China. To bridge the gap, the present study aims to explore what competencies are obligatory for successful intercultural business communication by examining the perceptions of Chinese business professionals on this issue. Adopting the triangulated research method, the present study employs both quantitative and qualitative data to ascertain a better understanding of the issues in question and to corroborate the results obtained from these two research methods. Two hundred and twenty-seven ( N = 227) Chinese business professionals filled in the online questionnaires and 11 of them participated in follow-up interviews. Our findings indicate that intercultural business communicative competence (IBCC) consists of four obligatory components: three in relation to cultural ability (metacognitive intelligence, motivational intelligence, and behavioral intelligence) and one to language ability (strategic competence). Based on our findings, we present a model of IBCC with implications to theory, practice, and education for intercultural business communication.

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