Measurement and Scaling Concepts

1. Research Methods in Management Measurement and Scaling Concepts Measurement and Scaling Concepts

2. Types of data used in research • Secondary data • Primary data

3. Secondary Data • Data gathered and recorded by someone else prior to and for a purpose other than the current project. • Sources of Secondary Data • Internal and Proprietary Data • Accounting information • Sales information and backorders • Customer complaints, service records, warranty card returns, and other records. • External Data • Generated or recorded by an entity other than the researcher’s organization (e.g. data from libraries, internet, government)

4. Sources of Secondary Data • World Development Indicator (WDI) • World Bank Enterprise Survey • International Finance Statistics (IFS) • Euromonitor International • Thailand National Statistical Officehttp://www.nso.go.th/

5. Primary Data • Data observed or collected directly from first-hand experience • Researchers are collecting information for the specific purposes of their study • Sources of Primary Data • Surveys/Questionnaire survey • Interviews • Direct observations

6. Scales • A device providing a range of values that correspond to different characteristics or amounts of a characteristic exhibited in observing a concept. • Levels of Scale Measurement • Nominal • Ordinal • Interval • Ratio

7. Nominal scales • Assigns a value to an object for identification or classification purposes. • It is a qualitative scale: we cannot tell which value is higher than others • For example: • Gender (Male/Female) • Race (Asian, White, Black, Latino) • Color (Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, White)

8. Ordinal scales • Ranking scales allowing things to be arranged based on how much of some concept they possess. • Example: • Educational level • High school • Bachelor's degree • Master’s degree • Doctoral degree

9. Ordinal scales • Example • How sleepy you are? (1) Not at all (2) A little (3)Some (4)A lot (5) Just look at my face • It's not at all clear whether the difference between “not at all"and "a little" is bigger, smaller, or the same as the difference between “some" and “a lot"

10. Interval scales • Capture information about differences in quantities of a concept. • They do not have a true zero point. • Example • Temperature • 30 degree Celsius is hotter than 20 degree Celsius by 10 degree • Zerodegrees Celsius does not represent the complete absence of temperature.

11. Ratio Scales • Highest form of measurement. • Zerorepresent the complete absence of value. • Examples • Height • Weight • Age • Price

12. Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio

13. Research Methods in Management Attitude Measurement Attitude measurement in survey research

14. Why conducting a survey? • Survey attempt to describe what is happening, what people believe, what they are like, or to learn the reasons for a particular activity. • Surveys can be both quantitative and qualitative. • Respondents • People who verbally answer an interviewer’s questions or provide answers to written questions.

15. Survey VS Poll

16. What is an Attitude? • Attitudes is the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of something. • Attitudes of human generally have three aspects: • Positive, Negative, and Neutral. • Components of attitudes: • Affective Component • The feelings or emotions toward an object • Cognitive Component • Knowledge and beliefs about an object • Behavioral Component • Predisposition to action • Intentions • Behavioral expectations

17. What is An Attitude? • Examples of attitude • Customer Satisfaction • Brand Loyalty • Stress • Self-confidence • Love

18. Can attitudes be measured? • Attitudes are “hypothetical constructs” that cannot be observed or measured directly. • Latent variable • Variables that are not directly observable but are measurable through indirect indicators, such as verbal expression or overt behavior.

19. Measuring Behavioral Intention • Behavioral Component • The behavioral expectations (expected future actions) of an individual toward an attitudinal object. • Example: • How likely is it that you will purchase a product in the near future? ( 5 ) I definitely will buy ( 4 ) I probably will buy ( 3 ) I might buy ( 2 ) I probably will not buy ( 1 ) I definitely will not buy

20. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) • TPB suggests that a person's behavior is determined by his/her intention to perform the behavior and that this intention is, in turn, a function of his/her attitude toward the behavior and his/her subjective norm (Ajzen, 1985) . • The best predictor of behavior is intention Attitude Intention Action

21. Questionnaire design • Structured/Unstructured Questionnaires • Structured question: imposes a limit on the number of allowable responses.

22. Questionnaire design • Structured/Unstructured Questionnaires • Unstructured question: does not restrict respondents’ answers.

23. Likert Scale • A popular means for measuring attitudes. • Respondents indicate their own attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or disagree with statements. • Typical response alternatives: “strongly agree,” “agree,” “uncertain,” “disagree,” and “strongly disagree.” I am satisfied with the product?Strongly disagree DisagreeUncertain Agree Strongly agree Or Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

24. Likert Scale

25. How satisfied are you with the current job? How satisfied are you with the current job? Very Neither Satisfied Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Nor Dissatisfied Satisfied Satisfied Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Satisfied Very satisfied Selecting a Measurement Scale (cont’d) • Balanced Rating Scale 1 2 3 4 5 • Unbalanced Rating Scale 1 2 3 4

26. Singled-item VS Multiple-item scales • Single-item scale • Only one question is used to measure the concept Example of single-item scale • Stress measurement • How often have you felt nervous or stress? Never (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Always

27. Singled-item VS Multiple-item scales • Multiple-item scale • A set of multiple items can represent the concept (attitude or behavioral report) more completely than can a single item. • Combining items reduces potentially idiosyncratic influences of any single item. • Aggregating across items increases the precision of measures.

28. Singled-item VS Multiple-item scales Example of Multiple-item scale • Stressmeasurement • How often have you felt nervous or stress? • How often have you felt difficulties were so high and you could not overcome them? • How often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do? Never (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Always Never (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Always Never (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Always

29. Computing Scale Values When Multiple-item scale is used, it is important to either “sum” or “average” the scores of all multi-item to create the composite measure. Create a total score by adding the scores Never Always 6 + 7 + 6 = 19 6 + 7 + 6 3 = 6.33 Or use a mean score Always Never Always Never

30. Computing Scale Values • Reverse Coding • Means that the value assigned for a response is treated oppositely from the other items. Reversed

31. Three Criteria for Good Measurement Validity Reliability Good Measurement Sensitivity

32. Validity • The accuracy of a measure or the extent to which a score truthfully represents a concept. X Promotion strategy

33. Reliability • Reliability • The degree to which measures are free from random error and therefore yield consistent results. • An indicator of a measure’s internal consistency. • Internal Consistency • Represents a measure’s homogeneity or the extent to which each indicator of a concept converges on some common meaning. • Measured by correlating scores on subsets of items making up a scale or using a Coefficient alpha (α)

34. Sensitivity • A measurement instrument’s ability to accurately measure variability in stimuli or responses. • Generally increased by adding more response points or adding scale items. Less sensitive (not good) Disagree Neutral Agree More sensitive (good) Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

35. Sensitivity • Example: Income range More sensitive (Better) Less sensitive Less than 10,000 10,001 – 20,000 20,001 – 40,000 40,001 – 60,000 60,001 – 80,000 80,001 – 100,000 More than 100,000 Less than 10,000 10,001 – 50,000 50,001 – 100,000 More than 100,000 Less income range can be captured More income range can be captured

36. Sensitivity • How many response points are needed? • 5 to 8 points are optimal for sensitivity. • The researcher must determine the number of positions that is best for the specific project. • However, the number of choices also depends on the level of sophistication of the respondents.

37. Measuring concepts • How to come up with measurement items • Use existing scale developed by others. • This information is normally reported at the “measures” section of the paper • Modify existing scale developed by others. • Some wordings can be changed. • Design your own scale. • A series of steps have to be applied to guarantee the construct validly of the scale (e.g., in-depth literature review, item-pool generation, expert evaluation, pretest, etc.).

38. Measuring concepts Example scales development

39. Measuring concepts Example scales development • After-sale service • The after-sale service is excellence. • The company provides impressive after-sale service. • I can get good support if I have problems with the product later. • Reasonable price • The price is reasonable. • The price is under the range that I am willing to pay for.

40. Measuring concepts Example scales development • Product quality • The product has good quality. • The product does not break down easily. • The product quality is excellent. • Product satisfaction • I am satisfied with the product. • I am happy with the product. • Buying this product is the right decision.

41. Measuring concepts Example scales development

42. Measuring concepts Example scales development • Salary satisfaction • I am satisfied with my current salary here. • My salary here is what I expect. • The company pays me very well. • Coworker relationship • My coworkers are very helpful. • My coworkers are supportive. • I have good relationship with my coworkers.

43. Measuring concepts Example scales development • Chance for promotion • People at my organization have equal chance to get promoted. • My workplace has a fair policy to promote employees. • If I work harder, I am confident I will get promoted. • Intention to quit • I am actively looking for another job. • I am thinking about quitting my job. • I will quit my job whenever I find the better job.

44. Pretesting and Revising Questionnaires • Pretesting Process • Seeks to determine whether respondents have any difficulty understanding the questionnaire and whether there are any ambiguous or biased questions.

45. Back Translation • Taking a questionnaire that has previously been translated into another language and having a second, independent translator translate it back to the original language. Translate Questions in Thai Questions in English Do they have the same meanings? Back translate Questions in English

46. Bias in attitude measurement • Unconscious Misrepresentation • When a respondent is consciously trying to be truthful and cooperative, response bias can arise from the question format, the question content, or some other stimulus that affects their response to a question. • Sources of misrepresentation: • Misunderstanding the question • Unable to recall details • Unprepared response to an unexpected question • Inability to translate feelings into words • After-event underreporting

47. Bias in attitude measurement • Deliberate Falsification • Occasionally people deliberately give false answers. • Misrepresent answers to appear intelligent • Conceal personal information • Avoid embarrassment

48. Bias in attitude measurement • Deliberate Falsification • Social Desirability Bias • Bias in responses caused by respondents’ desire, either conscious or unconscious, to gain prestige or appear in a different social role. • Two aspects of social desirability bias: • Self-deception (individuals distort information in the way that enhance their self-esteem) • Other-deception (people distort information in the way that make them look good by others).

49. Bias in attitude measurement • Solutions to avoid social desirability bias for sensitive questions. • Using indirect questions • Ask the research question in the third person perspective. • Direct question • How often did you steal from your workplace Never (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Always • Indirect question • Stealing from a workplace is unacceptable. • Strongly disagree (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Strongly agree

50. Bias in attitude measurement • Acquiescence Bias • A tendency to agree with all or most questions. • Extremity Bias • The tendency of some Individuals to use extremes when responding to questions. • Interviewer Bias • The presence of the interviewer influences respondents’ answers.