The Influence of Intercultural Communication for Immigrant Traders in Kenyan Informal Urban Markets

Introduction

Over the years, there has been increased travelling across cultural boundaries for various reasons such as trade. As trading across cultures continues to flourish, research on intercultural communication in the business arena will remain a relevant concern worth investigation in the academic field towards finding solutions to effective intercultural communication across cultures.

Today’s era of globalisation has largely contributed to the emergence of intercultural business environments with people from different cultures doing business together. Intercultural communication takes center stage in intercultural business settings. Therefore, there is need to investigate the influence of intercultural communication in intercultural business contexts towards leveraging on intercultural communication competencies as it plays a pivotal role in intercultural entrepreneurship. Furthermore, with globalisation becoming a near reality, the need to address cultural differences in a bid to increase intercultural awareness is paramount.

Intercultural communication in the business arena is a relevant field for investigation and a lot of literature on intercultural communication in the formal sectors is on record. This is especially so on competencies required for effective intercultural interaction (Ting-Toomey, 1999; Gudykunst, 2005). However there are limited studies, if any, on intercultural communication for immigrant traders in the informal market sectors.

The informal sector provides economic opportunities to majority of people in developing countries. For Kenya, majority of the immigrant traders come from East African countries due to its strategic location that has made it a transit country for goods especially to its landlocked neighbours. It is touted as a regional hub in Eastern Africa (International Organization for Migration [IOM], 2015). On this premise, intercultural communication takes place in the Kenyan business environments and especially in the informal sector where most of the immigrants from East African regions penetrate. As such, research on intercultural communication in the Kenyan informal sector is paramount towards investigating the intercultural barriers that may hinder effective regional economic activities amongst immigrant and local traders/host nationals in Kenyan informal business environments. Should this be left to chance, the consequences would not only stifle economic growth but would also lead to intercultural conflicts such as prejudice, stereotype, ethnocentrism and racism as cited by Samovar, Porter and McDaniel (2010). It is against this backdrop that the present study attempted to investigate the influence of intercultural communication on business ventures for the immigrant traders doing business activities amongst local traders/host nationals in one Kenyan urban informal market. Recognising cultural differences that may hinder effective intercultural communication for traders from different cultural background is fundamental towards finding solutions that would consequently advance trading initiatives across cultures in today’s economic domain. To this end, the research question for the present study was stated as follows: How does intercultural communication between immigrant and local traders/host nationals influence business ventures for the immigrant traders in Toi market?

The study is cognizant of the fact that the influences of intercultural communication for people from different cultures go beyond communication and language aspects as other cultural influences may include diversity in cultural aspects such as belief, norms, behaviors and perceptions such as gender perceptions that differ across cultures. This study, however, purposed to investigate the communication and language aspects that influenced intercultural communication between immigrant and local traders/host nationals doing business ventures in Toi market.

Literature Review

The literature review for the present study begins with a brief expose’ on the variables of the study that include intercultural communication, language, culture and immigrant entrepreneurship.