Evaluation and Refinement of Survey Scales

Abstract

The growth of international marketing has coincided with a greater need for valid and reliable construct measurement as a prerequisite for sound theory development. Many scholars have noted that international research has been fragmentary and lacking strong theoretical bases (e.g., Albaum and Peterson 1984; Aulakh and Kotabe 1993; Sekaran 1983; Sullivan 1994). As a result of methodological neglect, scholars have been unable to create a meaningful, theoretically derived, and empirically tested body of knowledge that provides direction to ongoing research. Standardization of definitions and use of valid scales is critical to the progress of international marketing research. Scales developed in one national setting may be inadequate for measuring constructs in other countries.