Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-2018
Abstract
We examine how international variation in corporate future-oriented behavior, such as corporate social responsibility and research and development investment, could partially stem from characteristics of the languages spoken at firms. We develop a future-time framing perspective rooted in the literatures on organizational categorization and framing. Our theory and hypotheses focus on how companies with working languages that obligatorily separate the future tense and the present tense engage less in future-oriented behaviors, and this effect is attenuated by exposure to multilingual environments. The results based on a large global sample of firms from 39 countries support our theory, highlighting the importance of language in affecting organizational behavior around the world.
Keywords
language, corporate social responsibility, organizational cognition, R&D investment, corporate future orientation, corporate culture
Discipline
Corporate Finance | Strategic Management Policy
Research Areas
Finance
Publication
Organization Science
Volume
29
Issue
6
First Page
1093
Last Page
1111
ISSN
1047-7039
Identifier
10.1287/orsc.2018.1217
Publisher
INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences)
Citation
LIANG, Hao; MARQUIS, Christopher; RENNEBOOG, Luc; and SUN, Sunny Li.
Future-time framing: The effect of language on corporate future orientation. (2018). Organization Science. 29, (6), 1093-1111.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6527
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1217