Attitudes toward organic products: a cross-national comparison and scale validation

Propósito – Este estudio examina las propiedades formales y métricas de la escala de actitudes hacia los productos orgánicos de Gil et al. (2000), que es la escala más popular para medir estas actitudes. Metodología – La muestra incluye 4.992 compradores principales en hogares de Hong Kong, Alemania, Noruega, España y el Reino Unido. El cuestionario se distribuyó utilizando un panel de consumidores, y el trabajo de campo se llevó a cabo mediante entrevistas online asistidas por ordenador. El enfoque se basó en un análisis factorial confirmatorio y en la invariancia de las medidas, así como en un análisis del formato utilizando un método descriptivo de redacción-sintáctico-semántico. Hallazgos – La escala refleja un enfoque de actitud basada en el objeto. Su uso ha sido muy variado (en redacción, semántica de sus redacciones y los atributos que mide). Se encuentra una estructura de dos factores que cumple con las condiciones métricas (fiabilidad y validez). Sin embargo, el análisis de invariancia muestra que la escala se comporta de manera diferente en distintos países. Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigación – Esta escala ofrece un buen punto de partida para medir las actitudes hacia los productos orgánicos, pero requiere un refinamiento para adaptarse a la evolución del consumidor y para mejorar su validez métrica. Se recomienda verificar su aplicabilidad en los estudios internacionales comparados. Originalidad/valor – Este es el primer estudio que evalúa el formato y las características cuantitativas de esta escala a nivel internacional. Para los académicos y las empresas con intereses internacionales, evitar el uso de escalas con propiedades deficientes a nivel transnacional puede mejorar el diseño de futuros estudios y ahorrar dinero a través de una elección más informada de la escala actitudinal.Purpose – This study aims to examine the formal and metric properties of Gil et al.’s (2000) scale of attitudes toward organic products, which is the most popular scale to measure these attitudes. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consisted of 4,992 household shoppers living in Hong Kong, Germany, Norway, Spain and the UK. The questionnaire was distributed using a third-party consumer panel, and the fieldwork was conducted using computer-assisted Web interviewing. The approach was based on confirmatory factor analysis and measurement of invariance, as well as format analysis using a wordingsyntactic and semantic descriptive method. Findings – The scale reflects an attitude-toward-object model approach. Its use has been heavily varied (in terms of wording, item semantics and the attributes to be measured). A two-factor structure that meets the metric conditions (reliability and validity) is found. However, the analysis of invariance shows that the scale behaves differently in different countries. Research limitations/implications – This scale offers a good starting point for measuring attitudes toward organic products. However, it requires refinement to adapt to consumer evolution and improve its metric validity. Verification of its applicability in cross-national studies is recommended. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that assesses the format and quantitative characteristics of this scale on a cross-national level. For scholars and companies with international interests, preventing the use of scales with poor properties at the transnational level can improveAdministración y Dirección de Empresa

A multi-criteria procedure in new product development using different qualitative scales

Producción CientíficaIn this paper, a new multi-criteria procedure is devised for new product devel-opment decision-making made from survey data. Groups of panelists evaluateseveral product categories regarding different criteria, each one through a spe-cific qualitative scale, which ultimately will guide decision-makers to develop anew product in a specific category. These qualitative scales are equipped withordinal proximity measures that collect the perceptions about the proximitiesbetween the terms of the scales by means of ordinal degrees of proximity. Thelinguistic assessments provided by panelists are compared with the highest termsof the corresponding qualitative scales. In order to aggregate the obtained or-dinal degrees of proximity, a homogenization process is provided. It avoids anycardinalization procedure in the ordinal proximity measures associated with theordered qualitative scales used for assessing the alternatives regarding different criteria. Products categories are ranked taking into account the medians of thehomogenized ordinal degrees of proximity