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Article published In:
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization
Vol. 5:2 (2018) ► pp.95–113

Common risks in the translation industry

A sequential exploratory study

| Khatam University
| University of Science Malaysia

The present research aimed at identifying and categorizing the common risks in the operations of translation companies. It further investigated the maturity level of translation companies in terms of risk management and their attitudes toward the application of a comprehensive risk management framework into their activities. The study had two phases of qualitative and quantitative research. During the qualitative phase, a total of 400 translation projects were observed in four translation companies and further based on the results of the qualitative phase, three questionnaires were developed and sent to 226 translation companies around the world. The researchers identified 44 risk candidates in the operation of translation companies and statistically grouped them into six risk categories. The results further indicated that translation company managers hardly know what risk management is about, while they demonstrated a significant interest in the application of a risk management framework into their activities.

Keywords: translation industry, risk management, maturity level, risk candidate, attitude
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Risk management and translation
  • 3.Why risk management?
  • 4.Research objectives
  • 5.Research design
    • 5.1The preparation phase
    • 5.2Phase one: The qualitative phase
    • 5.3Phase two: The quantitative phase
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Demographic data
    • 6.2Common risks in the operation of translation companies
    • 6.3Risk categories in the operations of translation companies
    • 6.4Attitudes of the respondents towards the application of a comprehensive risk management framework in their companies: Data from the qualitative phase
    • 6.5Maturity level of translation companies
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 January 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.00012.vae
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