The Impact of Language and Culture on Perceived We

1TheImpactofLanguageandCultureonPerceivedWebsiteUsabilityJacquesNANTELa,Σ,EvelyneGLASERbaHECMontréal,DepartmentofMarketing,3000ch.delaCôte-Ste-Catherine,Montréal(Québec),CanadaH3T2A7bJohannesKeplerUniversitätLinz,DepartmentofBusinesslanguagesandInterculturalCommunication,Altenbergerstraße69,A-4040Linz,AustriaAbstractOnlineretailersofferingtheirproductsacrossnationalandculturalbordersareeagertoenhancetheusabilityoftheirwebsitestoattractlargenumbersofvisitors.Theresultsofthepresentresearchshowthattheperceivedusabilityincreaseswhenthewebsitewasoriginallyconceivedinthenativelanguageoftheuser.Thus,translation,eventhoughofexcellentquality,createsaculturaldistancewhichimpactsonthewebusers’evaluationofthesite.Conversely,wheretranslationislessimportant,suchasintheevaluationofthequalityofanoffer,aconsumer’snativelanguagehasnoimpactonthebuyingdecision.Keywords:E-business;Websiteusability;Language;Culture;TranslationJELclassification:?ΣCorrespondingauthor.Tel:[phone],Fax:[phone].Emailaddresses:[e-mail],[e-mail]-businessisreachingtechnologicalmaturityduetothegrowingpenetrationofbroadbandconnectionstotheInternet.1ThishascreatedstrongeffectsforB2BandB2Conlinepurchasing.ThefiguresprovidedbytheUSCensusBureauforE-commerceintheyear2004showanincreaseof7.6percentoverthepreviousyearorofUS$245billion.2Thefirstquarter2006U.S.retaile-commercesalesvolumeincreased25.6percentfromthefirstquarterof2005,whereastotalsalesroseonly8.0percentinthesameperiod.3Onlineconsumerspendingin2005amountedtoUS$143.2billionandgained22percentover2004spending.4AsimilardevelopmentcanbeobservedinEurope.In2005,B2CE-commerceinFrance,forinstance,sawagrowthof44percentovertheyear2004andreachedavolumeofeuros7billion.5Whiletheproportionofonlinesalesisstilllow,witharound9percentoftotalturnoverintheEU-25and10percentintheU.S.,6thisrateshouldcontinuetogrowsteadily,asthemainindicatorsarerising.ThiscanalsobeseenfromthesheernumberofInternetusersofover1billionworldwide,withanincreaseof183.4percentfrom2000to2005.71Adynamice-businessenvironment.RetrievedMay25,2006from::E-Commerce2004,May25,2006,://(2006).Onlineretailsalesgrewin2005.électroniqueenFrance-Edition2006.(July2005):OverviewofInternationale-BusinessDevelopments.://:thewebsitewasdifficulttonavigate,theinabilitytocarryoutonlinetransactions,non-compliancewithdeliverytimes,productsnotdelivered,unansweredemails,andinaccessibleorinadequateinformation.AccordingtoapollconductedbyHarrisInteractiveInc.,89percentofallonlinecustomershaveexperiencedproblemswhentryingtocompletetransactionsonline,andasaresult34percenthaveswitchedtoacompetitor.8Consequently,asintraditionalstores,theservicequalityofcommercialwebsitesseemstoplayavitalroleinthesuccessofE-business.Whilesomeoftheencounteredproblemsmaybeduetotechnicalissuesorerrorsinsoftwarewriting,therearealsootherfactorsthatcomeintoplay.1.1–TheinfluenceoflanguageandcultureonwebsiteusabilityWhilemostmarketershaverecognizedthenecessitytoadapttheprintandbroadcastingmediatothespecificpreferencesofatargetculture(deMooij,2005),thisisnotyetcommonpracticeforwebsites.TothisdayEnglishisstilltheonlylanguageofmanywebsites.AlthoughHeckmanandSchmidt(2000)predictedalreadyseveralyearsagothatbytheyear200570%ofInternetuserswouldspeakanotherlanguagebutEnglishandthatonlineshopperswouldclickawayfromasitethatwasnotintheirnativelanguage,multilingualismormulticulturalismontheWebarenotyetcommonstandard.Thereasonmaybethatthetranslationofwebsitesiscostlyandtimeconsuming.Ifcompanieswanttomakesurethatthetranslationis8Astudyaboutonlinetransactions.http:(Harrison-Walker,2002).Ifabusinessdecidestohaveanonlinepresenceinseverallanguages,thisprocessneedstoberepeatedforeachlanguage.Althoughthisproceduremaybefollowedconscientiously,theauthorsofthispaperarguethatevenanexcellenttranslationcannotguaranteethatthewebuserswillactually“decode”themessageproperly,ifitwasoriginallywritteninadifferentlanguage.Thisisduetothefactthatthedecodingprocesstakesplaceaccordingtoculture-specificframesofreferencepassedontoallindividualsduring