Measurement Scale and Business Research

Measurement Scale The first decision with respect to measurement scale is whether the findings will be reported on a composite scale or a summated scale. A composite scale is probably the most appropriate for this study. A summated scale is commonly used in the social sciences, and can be used to reflect people's attitudes, emotions and feelings. There are four main characteristics of a summated scale. The first is that the scale must contain two or more items. The second is that the format must be a rating scale.

The third is that the scales "must be designed to assess an underlying construct that is quantifiable. The fourth is that the items do not have correct answers (Spector, 2006). A Likert scale is an example of a summated scale. The composite scale is one that transforms the original data point. There may be just a single variable, but sometimes there are multiple indicators. Composite scales are frequently used on psychological tests, or anything that is made of observable indicators. Sums and averages are frequently used composite scales (Marcus, 2006).

For this research, a summated scale will be used for most of the output. The core questions, those that relate to opinions and feelings, are going to use the summated scale. This scale is the most appropriate for the questions, and is commonly used in social sciences research, especially with respect to questions about attitudes and opinions. There will be some questions that seek to narrow down the basic demographics as well.

These questions -- where you do live (zip), age, gender, ethnicity, income and level of education -- will be tabulated using the composite technique, which is more appropriate for questions that have observable indicators. This information is not the core questions, but can also provide some valuable insight as to whether or not there is a split in the millennial demographic along any other lines, with respect to their food attitudes. There are not expected to be any ethical dilemmas in this research.

There are ethical issues, but they will not result in a dilemma. Confidentiality is one such ethical issue. It is important to take a couple of steps. First, the respondents must legally accept the terms and conditions, stating that they understand that they are completing a marketing survey, and outlining the safety provisions that we will follow, and asserting that the respondent understands all of these.

This confidentiality statement is actually why the survey is being limited to people 18 and over, because the issue of informed consent becomes much trickier with minors. Once informed consent has been established, the next step is going to be to implement some procedures that will help to protect confidentiality. This will be the use of codes. The codes will be where the person's name will be removed from the responses and replace with a code.

The key where names and codes align will be encrypted and stored in a secure facility. The researchers therefore will not be able to match a respondent's name and data, unless compelled to by court order. To give informed consent, the survey respondents will be debriefed prior, to ensure.