Lost in Translation: The Influence of Translated Information Quality on Foreign Shoppers

Abstract: Global e-retailing continues to soar in popularity, but scant attention is being paid to the role of translation services that combine people power with machines to enable business opportunities. This paper details a study investigating whether improving translated information quality of product descriptions increases the customers’ information satisfaction and their intention to use an online shopping website. Both machine and crowdsourced translation methods were used for written language translation from English to Simplified Chinese, as these are the official languages of the two largest economies (U.S.A and China) that also have large e-tailing markets. A research model based on DeLone & McLean’s (Updated) Information Systems Success Model was used for testing the impact of translated information quality. The results of the analysis demonstrate the use of a new translated information quality construct, and that translation method has a moderating effect on information satisfaction and intention to use.