Four subtle sins in scale development: some suggestions for strengthening the current paradigm

Dawn Pearcy and Leisa Reinecke Flynn

Despite continuing advances in statistical methods, problems in scalar measures persist. This paper reports the findings on a review of marketing scale batteries developed since the publication of Churchill's (1979) paper outlining a method for reliable and valid scale development.
  

Four Subtle Sins in Scale Development: Some Suggestions for Strengthening the Current Paradigm

Leisa Reinecke Flynn  and Dawn Pearcy Florida State University

 

Market research is fraught with controversies, vagaries and recurrent problems. One of the topics about which there has been a long history of complaints is the quality of scalar measures in marketing research. Jacoby was one of the first to comment: he warned against the use of single items as indicators of complex constructs (Jacoby 1978). Churchill took on the topic and wrote what became a very highly quoted set of guidelines...

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