Keele Research Repository

This paper identifies several stages of international management scholarship as multilingual in character as the conception and execution of research projects, whether empirical or theoretical, frequently require the use of several languages. These multilingual practices are contrasted with the monolingual nature of management research at the stage of disseminating newly generated knowledge: A stage that is dominated by the exclusive and taken for granted use of the English language. The paper challenges the ontological and epistemological assumption such monolingual practice is based upon and opens the ‘black box’ of international management research by asking questions about its language -based processes, which remain muted and ignored. In concluding, a turn to translation is proposed in order to harness the creativity inherent in multilingual research, while preserving the role of English as a shared language of knowledge.