Measurement in marketing

We distinguish three senses of the concept of measurement (measurement as the selection of observable indicators of theoretical concepts, measurement as the collection of data from respondents, and measurement as the formulation of measurement models linking observable indicators to latent factors representing the theoretical concepts), and we review important issues related to measurement in each of these senses. With regard to measurement in the first sense, we distinguish the steps of construct definition and item generation, and we review scale development efforts reported in three major marketing journals since 2000 to illustrate these steps and derive practical guidelines. With regard to measurement in the second sense, we look at the survey process from the respondent's perspective and discuss the goals that may guide participants' behavior during a survey, the cognitive resources that respondents devote to answering survey questions, and the problems that may occur at the various steps of the survey process. Finally, with regard to measurement in the third sense, we cover both reflective and formative measurement models, and we explain how researchers can assess the quality of measurement in both types of measurement models and how they can ascertain the comparability of measurements across different populations of respondents or conditions of measurement. We also provide a detailed empirical example of measurement analysis for reflective measurement models

Trajectories of functioning and mental health: determinants in general population

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Medicina, Departamento de Psiquiatría. Fecha de lectura: 17-10-201

Changing an Unfavorable Employment Reputation: A Longitudinal Examination

Although a favorable employment reputation plays an important role in generating a large and qualified pool of job applicants for an organization (Rynes & Cable, 2003), little research has investigated whether organizations can improve applicants’ existing unfavorable employment reputation perceptions. Results from a four-week longitudinal experiment using 222 student job seekers revealed that participants’ employment reputation perceptions improved after exposure to recruitment practices and followed diminishing returns trajectories over time. High information recruitment practices (e.g., personal communication from a recruiter) from both single and multiple sources were more effective for changing unfavorable employment reputation perceptions than repeated mere exposure to the organization (i.e., exposure to only the company logo), and high information practices from multiple sources were the most effective overall. Finally, participants reporting less familiarity with the organization experienced greater reputation change across the four weeks, but only for participants in the mere exposure condition

The relation between fluid intelligence and the general factor as a function of cultural background: a test of Cattell's investment theory

According to Cattell’s (1987) Investment theory individual differences in acquisition of knowledge and skills are partly the result of investment of Fluid Intelligence (Gf) in learning situations demanding insights in complex relations. If this theory holds true Gf will be a factor of General Intelligence (g) because it is involved in all domains of learning. The purpose of the current study was to test the Investment theory, through investigating effects on the relation between Gf and g of differential learning opportunities for different subsets of a population. A second-order model was fitted with confirmatory factor analysis to a battery of 17 tests hypothesized to measure four broad cognitive abilities The model was estimated for three groups with different learning opportunities (N = 2358 Swedes, N = 620 European immigrants, N = 591 non-European immigrants), as well as for the total group. For this group the g Gf relationship was 0.83, while it was close to unity within each of the three subgroups. These results support the Investment theory.Structure of intelligence; Cattell’s Investment theory; fluid Intelligence; general Intelligence

Superwoman schema: using structural equation modeling to investigate measurement invariance in a questionnaire

Evaluating the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument is critical to understanding how well an instrument measures what it intends to measure, and ensuring proposed use and interpretation of questionnaire scores are valid. The current study uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques to examine the factorial structure and invariance properties of a newly developed construct called Superwoman Schema (SWS). The SWS instrument describes the characteristics of a superwoman (strong woman) which consists of 35 items representing five subscales: obligation to present an image of strength, obligation to suppress emotions, resistance to being vulnerable, intense motivation to succeed, and obligation to help others. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model were the SEM approaches used to examine measurement invariance in the SWS instrument. Specifically in the multigroup CFA analyses, configural invariance, metric invariance, intercept invariance, residual variance invariance, and latent mean invariance are examined between a group of young (18-39 years old) women and middle-aged (40-65 years old) women. In the MIMIC model, the hypothesized model of the SWS was used to investigate the group differences in the young and middle-aged women. Both SEM techniques provided a didactic discussion about the findings of the study, which confirmed that the SWS instrument could be broadly used (i.e., invariance held) to compare young and middle-aged African American women on superwoman characteristics. Further research is needed to better understand the possible contextual factors (i.e., racial or gender stereotyping, oppression, spiritual values, etc.) that may contribute to group differences on the SWS subscales and minor violation to invariance

Fisheries Production: Management Institutions, Spatial Choice, and the Quest for Policy Invariance

The fishery-dependent data used to estimate fishing production technologies are shaped by the incentive structures that influence fishermen’s purposeful choices across their multiple margins of production. Using a combination of analytical and simulation methods, we demonstrate how market prices and regulatory institutions influence a dominant short-run margin of production—the deployment of fishing time over space. We show that institutionally driven spatial selection leads to only a partial exploration of the full production set, yielding poorly identified estimates of production possibilities outside of the institutionally dependent status quo. The implication is that many estimated fisheries production functions suffer from a lack of policy invariance and may yield misleading predictions for even the most short-run of policy evaluation tasks. Our findings suggest that accurate assessment of the impacts of a policy intervention requires a description of the fishing production process that is sufficiently structural so as to be invariant to institutional changes.Ye

Structure of Mathematics Acheivement and Response to Intervention in Children with Mild Disabilities

Children with mild disabilities are known to have difficulties with developing mathematical skills (Hoard, Geary, & Hamson, 1999). Yet, children with mild intellectual disabilities (MIDs) have rarely been included in rigorous scientific research. The present study has three goals. The first goal was to determine the structure of mathematics achievement in elementary aged children with MIDs and children with reading disabilities (RDs) without accompanying mathematics disabilities. The second goal was to establish the measurement stability of mathematics achievement. The third goal was to evaluate students’ response to a mathematics intervention. The participants were 265 children with MIDs and 137 children with RDs. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance evaluation was utilized to determine the structure of mathematics achievement and to ensure reliable and valid measurement of mathematics achievement between groups across three time points. The results of measurement invariance evaluation indicated that a joint model specification, characterized by two groups, both of which included children with MIDs and children with RDs who were differentiated according to intervention condition participation (not disability status), provided the best account of the underlying data structure. Further, the structure of mathematics achievement in the present sample was unidimensional, and the measurement of mathematics achievement was temporally stable between groups. Finally, latent mathematics achievement growth was evaluated. The results indicated that students in the mathematics intervention condition evidenced an advantage over those in a reading intervention condition at mid- and post-intervention evaluation, while also evidencing more growth in this conceptual domain. Instructional implications are discussed in terms of topic choice and pacing

Structure of Mathematics Acheivement and Response to Intervention in Children with Mild Disabilities

Children with mild disabilities are known to have difficulties with developing mathematical skills (Hoard, Geary, & Hamson, 1999). Yet, children with mild intellectual disabilities (MIDs) have rarely been included in rigorous scientific research. The present study has three goals. The first goal was to determine the structure of mathematics achievement in elementary aged children with MIDs and children with reading disabilities (RDs) without accompanying mathematics disabilities. The second goal was to establish the measurement stability of mathematics achievement. The third goal was to evaluate students’ response to a mathematics intervention. The participants were 265 children with MIDs and 137 children with RDs. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance evaluation was utilized to determine the structure of mathematics achievement and to ensure reliable and valid measurement of mathematics achievement between groups across three time points. The results of measurement invariance evaluation indicated that a joint model specification, characterized by two groups, both of which included children with MIDs and children with RDs who were differentiated according to intervention condition participation (not disability status), provided the best account of the underlying data structure. Further, the structure of mathematics achievement in the present sample was unidimensional, and the measurement of mathematics achievement was temporally stable between groups. Finally, latent mathematics achievement growth was evaluated. The results indicated that students in the mathematics intervention condition evidenced an advantage over those in a reading intervention condition at mid- and post-intervention evaluation, while also evidencing more growth in this conceptual domain. Instructional implications are discussed in terms of topic choice and pacing

Changing an Unfavorable Employer Reputation: The Roles of Recruitment Message-Type and Familiarity with Employer

An unfavorable employer reputation can impair an organization’s ability to recruit job seekers. The present research employed a four-week longitudinal experimental design to investigate whether recruitment messages can positively change an existing unfavorable employer reputation. Two hundred and twenty-two (222) job seekers rated their perceptions of an organization before and after being randomly assigned to receive a series of high- or low-information recruitment messages. As expected, job seekers receiving high-information messages changed their perceptions more than job seekers who were exposed to low-information messages. In addition, job seekers’ initial familiarity with the employer was negatively related to change in their perceptions of employer reputation. Finally, there was some evidence that job seekers’ familiarity with the employer influenced the impact of different recruitment messages. Implications for research and practice are discussed