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Editorial • BAR, Braz. Adm. Rev. 13 (1) • Jan-Mar 2016 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-7692bar2016160042   copy

Editorial

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Why in English? Lingua Franca in Academic Publication

Lingua franca is a third or link language that is understood by two parties who speak different languages. Interestingly, although only five percent of the world's population speaks English as a first language, it is the most common lingua franca in international business (Wild & Wild, 2012Wild, J. J., & Wild, K. L. (2012). International business: the challenges of globalization (6th ed.). New York: Pearson., p. 62). According to Mauranen and Ranta (2008Mauranen, A., & Ranta, E. (2008). English as an academic lingua franca - the ELFA project. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 7(3), 199-202. Retrieved from http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/download/159/157
http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/a... , p. 199), "as the use of English in academic settings has continued its spread and influence all over the world, the global status had brought with it a change in the user population: academic English is mostly used by non-native speakers". The same author points out that it is necessary a better comprehension of the way English is used in the new circumstances "where the native speaker may not be present" (p. 199). Bjorkman (2011)Bjorkman, B. (2011). English as a lingua franca in higher education: implications for EAP. Iberica, 22, 79-100. Retrieved from http://www.aelfe.org/documents/04_22_Bjorkman.pdf
http://www.aelfe.org/documents/04_22_Bjo... indicates that currently English is the main means of academic communication in Northern European universities. "It has long been the language of publication in this area" (p. 80). English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a necessary trend. Since its first number, BAR has chosen to accept articles only in English, as a way to bring more visibility to the Brazilian management academic production, and also to be an outlet for foreign authors worldwide, among other objectives.

BAR's decision to publish only papers in English since its first number goes in accordance with the lingua franca principle (a vehicular language that is spoken by people who do not share a native language). On BAR first editorial, Guimarães and Machado-da-Silva (2004, p. 1) said that

the main reason for bringing you an English language journal edited by a Brazilian academic association is that there is a growing need to bring our scientific work to a wider audience, which inevitably means taking it to countries where Portuguese is not the dominant language.

They continue indicating that "this does not mean that the BAR is restricted to articles written in English by Brazilian authors" (p. 1), it will be publishing articles in English from other academic communities. Twelve years have passed by since then, and BAR as a pioneer in the field of management still has the task to stimulate our academy to be more international. If we (Brazilian Management Academics) want to be global and let the world knows what we do in terms of innovation in business research, we must publish in English - this way, we will reach a larger audience and if, we as authors are to produce sound research, the international recognition will be at hand. This brings a challenge for the Brazilian academic researchers: to write in proper academic English to be internationally competitive. This is not the main challenge though. We have to bring contribution and sometimes forget about focusing on the Brazilian context research, but instead, to drive our energy on research that brings scientific contribution: theoretical contribution is a key word in that process.

We are facing in Brazil the pressure brought by the famous quote publish or perish well known among academics abroad. To succeed in an academic career it is necessary to have a positive reputation, which in great part comes from our scientific work translated into articles. Instead of concentrating our publication only in Journals identified by Qualis CAPES as A or B, we have also to look for the journal impact factor. Traditionally, journals that publish in English tend to have a larger audience and a better chance to achieve a higher impact factor. Once more, we need to have the domain of the English language, and if we do not, we need professional help on that issue, to eliminate language barriers and get our work published.

The question that arises is: how we Brazilians are going to publish in English if we do not practice it in our academic life in a more intensive way? It is time to rethink our graduate courses and direct them to the writing in English, and not only on the reading English issue. Even though BAR targets foreign authors' audience, we have a large Brazilian Portuguese speaker authors and readers' audience. To have more proficiency we will need to direct our students and ourselves as authors and reviewers to write only in English in the academic world. This may sound too radical but if the Brazilian management academy wants to be worldwide recognized that is the way to achieve our objective. We need to use the lingua franca (English) to communicate the results of our research beyond Brazilian boards. This can start by writing theses and dissertations in English, and giving up ABNT standards and adopting APA in our graduate programs.

Also, it is expected that reviewers are knowledgeable in English. We need to internationalize more the Brazilian management scientific community so that we can be more attractive to the international community. Seidlhofer (2005)Seidlhofer, B. (2005). English as lingua franca. ELT Journal, 59(4), 339-341. doi: 10.1093/elt/cci064.
https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/cci064... claims that "despite being welcomed by some and deplored by others, it cannot be denied that English functions as a global lingua franca" (p. 339). Complementing this idea, Hülmbauer, Böhringer and Seidlhofer (2008) defend that in a globalized world,

interconnectedness has not merely affected numerous aspects of our daily lives in the physical sense of transcending borders. It has above all confronted our information-based societies with the necessity to find a common voice in order to bridge language barriers - not only for the simple exchange of information, but also for the mutual creation of knowledge (p. 26).

House (2003)House, J. (2003). English as a lingua franca: a threat to mulingualism? Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 556-578. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2003.00242.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2003... indicates that the assumption that English in its role as lingua franca is a serious threat to multilingualism, it is not correct when one considers the difference between using a language for communication and for identification. I do not want to give up speaking and writing in Portuguese (my identity as a Brazilian), but international academy calls for ELF (English as Lingua Franca) - we need to communicate to the world!

The Current Issue

BAR brings good news in its first number of 2016. Starting May 2016, we are now accepting articles in all subareas of Business Administration (including Public Administration) and Accounting.

We would like to thank Professor Claude Obadia for his contribution at the Editorial Board, he is no longer part of our team. At the same time, we welcome Professor Jorge Carneiro to our Editorial Board, his knowledge as former Editor-in-chief will certainly bring great contribution to our journal.

The first number of BAR in 2016 presents six articles, as follow:

The first article (Relationships and Partnerships in Small Companies: Strengthening the Business through External Agents) by Glessia Silva, Antonio Luiz Rocha Dacorso, Vanessa Barreto Costa and Luiz Carlos Di Serio aims to understand the relationships between small companies and external innovation agents and how they can help strengthening these organizations using a multiple case research method.

The second article (Improving Consumer Decisions: The Conscious Use of Primes as Performance Enhancers) by Leonardo Nicolao, Eric Yorkston, Deanne Brocato and Vinicius Andrade Brei using an Embedded Figures Test, demonstrates that individuals can be consciously primed into an analytic thinking mindset and perform better when they believe that the prime will enhance performance.

The third article (Effect of Nostalgia on Customer Loyalty to Brand Post-Merger/Acquisition) by Ana Carolina Toledo and Evandro Luiz Lopes, has as main objective to identify the effect of nostalgic feelings on consumer loyalty to the prevailing brand following the extinction of a brand in a merger/acquisition process.

The fourth article (Analysis of Innovation and Its Environmental Impacts on the Chemical Industry) by Dusan Schreiber, Uélinton Telmo Ermel, João Alcione Sganderla Figueiredo and Alexandre Zeni brings results indicating that development of innovations is predominantly of an incremental nature and that novelty is generally restricted to the new-for-firm level.

The fifth article (Corwin-Schultz Bid-ask Spread Estimator in the Brazilian Stock Market) by Alexandre Ripamonti tests the validity of the Corwin-Schultz bid-ask spread estimator in the Brazilian stock market. The Corwin-Schultz estimator arises as an easy way to compute asymmetric information throughout daily high and low stock prices for estimating overnight and non-negative adjusted spreads.

Finally, the sixth article (Team Potency and Its Impact on Performance via Self-efficacy and Adaptability) by Rodrigo Bastos Monteiro and Valter Afonso Vieira presents that in the sales field, working together for achieving individual performance is a relevant element for a team. Authors suggest a theoretical framework that analyzes the impact of team potency on subjective performance, according to two mechanisms: self-efficacy and adaptability.

Enjoy the knowledge from our articles!

References

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    Jan-Mar 2016
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