Small- and medium-sized enterprises in a multilingual region: best practices in multilingualism or missed opportunities?

The paper focuses on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in bilingual/multilingual regions. We analyse how they manage multilingual communication, multilingual knowledge sharing, and internationalisation. The findings are based on a qualitative and quantitative study conducted on SMEs located in multilingual South Tyrol, Italy. Our data reveal that exploiting multilingualism as a competitive advantage represents a challenge for the local SMEs well before internationalisation. Language-related challenges are partly similar to those faced by large international multinationals. However, some of the specific characteristics of SMEs have a notable impact on language practices, (multilingual) knowledge sharing, and internationalisation paths.