The Role of Translated Information Quality in a Global e-Retailing Context

Global e-retailing continues to soar in popularity, but scant attention is being paid to the role of translation. This paper proposes a study investigating whether improving translated information quality of product descriptions increases the customers’ information satisfaction, while reducing the perceived product risk, which in turn improves their intention to use an online shopping website. To manipulate translation quality, two translation methods are used: machine and crowdsourced. The chosen translation written language pair is from English to Simplified Chinese, as these are the official languages of the two largest economies (U.S.A and China respectively) that also have large e-tailing markets. A model based on an integration of two theories, DeLone & McLean’s Information Systems Success Model, and Perceived Risk Theory, has been developed for testing the impact of translated information quality. The moderating effect of translation method and e-retailer’s brand influencing customers’ tolerance of imperfect translation is also considered.