Measurement and Scaling

By Rama Krishna Kompella

 Learning Objectives
• Understand the role of measurement in
marketing research
• Explain the four basic levels of scales
• Describe scale development and its
importance gathering primary data
• Discuss comparative and
noncomparative scales
 Basic Measurement Issues
 Measurement is the process of assigning numbers or
labels to objects, persons, states, or events in
accordance with specific rules to represent quantities
or qualities of attributes.
 We do not measure specific objects, persons, etc., we
measure attributes or features that define them.
 Ex., What defines the person Brent Wren? What is a
student’s level of education? How customer oriented
is our company?
 Overriding Goal: To provide a valid and reliable
description or enumeration of the person, objects,
issue, etc.
 Accuracy of Measurements
 Why do scores on a measurement scale differ?
◦ A true difference in the characteristic being
measured.
◦ Short-term personal factors (e.g., moods, time
constraints)
◦ Situational factors (e.g., surroundings)
◦ Variations in method of administering survey.
◦ Sampling of items included in the questionnaire.
◦ Lack of clarity in the measurement instrument.
◦ Mechanical or instrument factors causing
completion errors.
 Measurement Process
1. Define concepts to be measured
2. Define attributes of the concepts
3. Select scale of measurement (data type)
4. Generate Items/Questions
– Wording
– Response format
5. Layout and design questionnaire
6. Pretest and refine
 Some Key Concepts
• Measurement
– Assigning numbers or other symbols to
characteristics of objects being measured, according
to predetermined rules.
• Concept (or Construct)
– A generalized idea about a class of objects, attributes,
occurrences, or processes.
• Relatively concrete constructs
– Age, gender, number of children, education, income
• Relatively abstract constructs
– Brand loyalty, personality, channel power, satisfaction
 Some Key Concepts
• Scaling
– The generation of a continuum upon which measured
objects are located.
• Scale
– A quantifying measure – a combination of items that
is progressively arranged according to value or
magnitude.
– Purpose is to quantitatively represent an item’s,
person’s, or event’s place in the scaling continuum.
Four Basic Scales of Measurement

Nominal
NominalScales
Scales

Ordinal
OrdinalScales
Scales

Interval
IntervalScales
Scales

Ratio
RatioScales
Scales
 Primary Scales of Measurement
Scale
Nominal Symbols Finish
Assigned
B S G
to Runners o a e
b m n
e
Ordinal Rank Order Finish
of Winners
3rd place 2nd place 1st place

Interval Performance
Rating on a 3 7 9

0 to 10 Scale
15.2 14.1 13.4
Ratio Time to
Finish, in
 Primary Scales of Measurement
Nominal Scale
• The numbers serve only as labels or tags for identifying and
classifying objects.
• When used for identification, there is a strict one-to-one
correspondence between the numbers and the objects.
• The numbers do not reflect the amount of the characteristic
possessed by the objects.
• The only permissible operation on the numbers in a nominal
scale is counting.
• Only a limited number of statistics, all of which are based on
frequency counts, are permissible, e.g., percentages, and
mode.
 Primary Scales of Measurement
Ordinal Scale
• A ranking scale in which numbers are assigned to objects to
indicate the relative extent to which the objects possess some
characteristic.
• Can determine whether an object has more or less of a
characteristic than some other object, but not how much
more or less.
• Any series of numbers can be assigned that preserves the
ordered relationships between the objects.
• In addition to the counting operation allowable for nominal
scale data, ordinal scales permit the use of statistics based on
centiles, e.g., percentile, quartile, median.
 Primary Scales of Measurement
Interval Scale
• Numerically equal distances on the scale represent equal values in the
characteristic being measured.
• It permits comparison of the differences between objects. For
example, the difference between 1 and 2 is the same as between 3
and 4. The difference between 1 and 9 (i.e., 8) is twice as large as the
difference between 2 and 4 (i.e., 2) or 6 and 8 (2).
• The location of the zero point is not fixed. Both the zero point and the
units of measurem. are arbitrary.
• It is NOT meaningful to take ratios of scale values
• It IS meaningful to take ratios of their differences.
• Statistical techniques that may be used include all of those that can be
applied to nominal and ordinal data, and in addition the arithmetic
mean, standard deviation, correlation, and other common statistics.
• But NOT: geometric or harmonic mean, nor CV = S/X
 Primary Scales of Measurement
Ratio Scale
• Possesses all the properties of the nominal, ordinal, and
interval scales.
• It has an absolute zero point. Examples: height, weight, age,
money, sales, costs, market share, number of customers, the
rate of return.
• It is meaningful to compute ratios of scale values.
• For example, not only is the difference between 2 and 5 the
same as the difference between 14 and 17, but also 14 is
seven times as large as 2 in an absolute sense.
• All statistical techniques can be applied to ratio data.
 Primary Scales of Measurement
Sca le Ba sic Com m on Ma rke ting Pe rm issible Sta tistics
Cha ra cte ristics Ex a m ple s Ex a m ple s Descriptive Inferential
Nom ina l Numbers identify Social Security Brand nos., store Percentages, Chi-square,
& classify objects nos., numbering types mode binomial test
of football players
Ordina l Nos. indicate the Quality rankings, Preference Percentile, Rank-order
relative positions rankings of teams rankings, market median correlation,
of objects but not in a tournament position, social Friedman
the magnitude of class ANOVA
differences
between them
Inte rva l Differences Temperature Attitudes, Range, mean, Product-
between objects (Fahrenheit) opinions, index standard moment
Ra tio Zero point is fixed, Length, weight Age, sales, Geometric Coefficient of
ratios of scale income, costs mean, harmonic variation
values can be mean
compared
 Generate Items
• Items are basically questions
• Need to ensure that enough questions are
asked to generate information necessary to
address research problems.
• Likely will have a mix of question types and
scales of measurement
• Multi-item, Composite or Index Measures
– A measurement scale containing multiple questions
addressing same construct or attribute
 A Classification of Scaling
Techniques
Scaling Techniques

Comparative Noncomparative
Scales Scales

Q-Sort
Continuous Itemized
Paired Rank Constant
Comparison Order Sum and Rating Scales Rating Scales
Other
Procedures

Semantic Stapel
Likert
Differential
 Paired Comparison Scaling
• Respondent is presented with two objects at a
time
• Then asked to select one object in the pair
according to some criterion
• Data obtained are ordinal in nature
– Arranged or ranked in order of magnitude
• Easy to do if only a few items are compared.
• If number of comparisons is too large,
respondents may become fatigued and no longer
carefully discriminate among them.
 Paired Comparison Scaling: Example
For each pair of professors, please indicate the professor from whom you prefer to take
classes with a 1.

Cunningham Day Parker Thomas

Cunningham 0 0 0

Day 1 1 0

Parker 1 0 0

Thomas 1 1 1 0

# of times
3 1 2 0
preferred
 Rank Order Scaling
• Respondents are presented with several objects
simultaneously
• Then asked to order or rank them according to some
criterion.
• Data obtained are ordinal in nature
– Arranged or ranked in order of magnitude
• Commonly used to measure preferences among brands
and brand attributes
 Rank Order Scaling
Please rank the instructors listed below in order of preference. For the instructor you prefer the
most, assign a “1”, assign a “2” to the instructor you prefer the 2 nd most, assign a “3” to the
instructor that you prefer 3rd most, and assign a “4” to the instructor that you prefer the least.

Instructor Ranking

Cunningham 1

Day 3

Parker 2

Thomas 4
 Constant Sum Scaling
• Respondents are asked to allocate a
constant sum of units among a set of
stimulus objects with respect to some
criterion
• Units allocated represent the importance
attached to the objects.
• Data obtained are interval in nature
• Allows for fine discrimination among
alternatives
 Constant Sum Scaling
Listed below are 4 marketing professors, as well as 3 aspects that students typically
find important. For each aspect, please assign a number that reflects how well you
believe each instructor performs on the aspect. Higher numbers represent higher
scores. The total of all the instructors’ scores on an aspect should equal 100.

Instructor Availability Fairness Easy Tests

Cunningham 30 35 25

Day 30 25 25

Parker 25 25 25

Thomas 15 15 25

Sum Total 100 100 100

Graphic Rating Scale
 A Classification of Scaling
Techniques
Scaling Techniques

Comparative Noncomparative
Scales Scales

Paired Rank Constant Q-Sort and Continuous Itemized

Comparison Order Sum Other Rating Scales Rating Scales
Procedures

Semantic Stapel
Likert
Differential
 Continuous Rating Scale Example

Very Very
Poor X Good
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 Likert Scale
A likert scale is an ordinal scale format that
asks respondents to indicate the extent to
which they agree or disagree with a series
of mental or behavioral belief statements
about a given object
Likert Scale Example
 Semantic Differential Scale

A semantic differential scale is unique bipolar

ordinal scale format that captures a person’s
attitudes and/or feelings about a given object
Semantic Differential Scale Format
 Behavioral Intention Scale

A behavioral intention scale is a special type of

rating scale designed to capture the likelihood
that people will demonstrate some type of
predictable behavior intent toward purchasing an
object or service in a future time frame
Shopping Intention Scale
 Scale Evaluation
Scale
Evaluation
Validity
Reliability

Content
Test-Retest
Internal Criterion
Consistency
Alternative
Forms Construct
Convergent
Validity

Discriminant
Validity
Nomological
Validity
 Reliability
• Extent to which a scale produces consistent
results
• Test-retest Reliability
– Respondents are administered scales at 2 different
times under nearly equivalent conditions
• Alternative-form Reliability
– 2 equivalent forms of a scale are constructed, then
tested with the same respondents at 2 different
times
 Reliability
• Internal Consistency Reliability
– The consistency with which each item represents the
construct of interest
– Used to assess the reliability of a summated scale
– Split-half Reliability
• Items constituting the scale divided into 2 halves, and
resulting half scores are correlated
– Coefficient alpha (most common test of reliability)
• Average of all possible split-half coefficients resulting from
different splittings of the scale items
 Validity
• Extent to which true differences among the objects are
reflected on the characteristic being measured
• Content Validity
– A.k.a., face validity
– Subjective, but systematic evaluation of the
representativeness of the content of a scale for the measuring
task at hand
• Criterion Validity
– Examines whether measurement scale performs as expected
in relation to other variables selected as meaningful criteria
– I.e., predicted and actual behavior should be similar
 Construct Validity
• Addresses the question of what construct or
characteristic the scale is actually measuring
• Convergent Validity
– Extent to which scale correlates positively with other
measures of the same construct
• Discriminant Validity
– Extent to which a measure does not correlate with other
constructs from which it is supposed to differ
• Nomological Validity
– Extent to which scale correlates in theoretically predicted
ways with measures of different but related constructs
Relationship Between Reliability and
Validity
• A scale can be reliable, but not valid
• In order for a scale to valid, it must also be reliable.
• In other words,
– Reliability is a necessary but insufficient condition for
Validity.
 Reliability and Validity on Target

Old Rifle New Rifle New Rifle Sunglare

Low Reliability High Reliability Reliable but Not
Valid
(Target A) (Target B) (Target C)
Q & As