Examining the cross-national applicability of multi-item, multi-dimensional measures using generalizability theory
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Examining the cross-national applicability of multi-item, multi-dimensional measures using generalizability theory S Durvasula1, RG Netemeyer2, JC Andrews3 and S Lysonski3 1 College of Business Administration, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA; 2McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, Virginia, USA; 3Department Of Marketing, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Correspondence: Dr S Durvasula, College of Business Administration, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53233, USA. Tel: þ 1 414 288 5471; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract Establishing the applicability of multi-item measures is important for making valid inferences when testing theories cross-nationally. Typically, researchers have relied upon the tenets of classical measurement theory (CT) using confirmatory factor model invariance testing to conclude that a unidimensional measure is applicable across countries. However, two important issues remain unresolved via CT techniques: (1) if the measure is found not to be invariant, CT tells us little as to why the measure varies across countries; and (2) if the measure is multi-dimensional, what factors affect its cross-national applicability? Our research seeks to address these issues and the cross-national measurement applicability of multi-dimensional scales via generalizability theory (GT). In this paper, we use a cross-national data set and simulated data sets to demonstrate the usefulness of GT to cross-national multidimensional measurement. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 469–483. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400210 Keywords: measurement; cross-cultural; scale validation; generalizability theory
Received: 28 October 2003 Revised: 16 June 2005 Accepted: 19 October 2005 Online publication date: 18 May 2006
Introduction Establishing the applicability of constructs and measures developed in the US to other countries continues to be a focus of crossnational marketing research and international business studies in general (Mullen, 1995; Balabanis et al., 2001; Steenkamp et al., 2001; Fu et al., 2004). All too often researchers have assumed that concepts and measures developed in one country are relevant in other countries without examining their cross-national applicability. The term ‘applicability’ refers to construct equivalence in which the operational definition and conceptual meaning of the construct are the same across countries. Applicability basically implies that the construct is expressed in a similar way in all countries of interest, and therefore has similar levels of reliability and validity. When the assumption of applicability is not verified, the probability of invalid cross-national inferences increases. That is, if the psychometric properties of a measure vary widely across countries, conclusions based on the scale may actually represent artifacts due to scale unreliability and lack of validity (Van de Vijver and Leung, 1997; Steenkamp and Ba
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