The Impact of Linguistic Accommodation on Transactional and Relational Goals in Business Communication

Abstract

Introduction: Efficient and effective business communication depends on appropriate communication adjustments that are at the core of communication accommodation theory. This theory has been used to explore the role of communication accommodation in driving business performance and organizational success. However, there has been no systematic survey of linguistic accommodation in business communication. Research questions: 1. What are general characteristics of studies on the impact of linguistic accommodation in business communication? 2. What are the foci of linguistic accommodation in business communication? 3. What are the contexts, participants (actors and targets), transactional goals, and relational goals of linguistic accommodation in business communication? Methodology: We conducted an integrative literature review based on journal articles from the database Web of Science Core Collection. After retrieving 32 articles corresponding to our research purpose, we conducted a qualitative content analysis to describe general characteristics of these articles and identify foci of linguistic accommodation, contexts, participants (actors and targets), transactional goals, and relational goals of linguistic accommodation. Results and conclusions: In both external and internal business communication, actors tend to accommodate or nonaccommodate targets by choosing different languages and communication styles on different linguistic levels based on their language proficiency. We found that linguistic accommodation generally has a positive impact on transactional goals (such as service quality perceptions, negotiation effectiveness, and group performance) and relational goals (such as brand trust, consumer engagement, and cooperation intentions). This review may help business professionals adopt appropriate linguistic accommodation strategies to achieve transactional or relational goals, and aid teachers of business communication in developing students’ accommodation competence.