Measurement & Scaling Techniques

Business Research Methods Topic for MBA and NET Students

1. Measurement & Scaling Techniques UNIT – III Business Research Methodology

2. Measurement in Research In our daily life we are said to measure when we use some yardstick to determine weight, height, or some other feature of a physical object. We also measure when we judge how well we like a song, a painting or the personalities of our friends. We, thus, measure physical objects as well as abstract concepts. By measurement we mean the process of assigning numbers to objects or observations, the level of measurement being a function of the rules under which the numbers are assigned. Date Your Footer Here 3

3. Measurement Scales Nominal Scale Ordinal Scale Interval Scale Ratio Scale

4. Nominal Scale of Measurement Nominal stands for “Name” of category Numbers are used simply as levels for group or class It is use for qualitative rather than quantitative data Nominal Scale is the least powerful level of measurement It provide convenient ways to keeping track of people, objects and events. One can not do much with the number involved.

5. Example

6. Ordinal Scale of Measurement The lowest level of the ordered scale that is commonly used Data elements may be ordered according to their relative size of quality. Four products ranked by a consumer may be ranked as 1,2,3 & 4 where 4 is the best and 1 is the worst. In this scale we don’t know how much better one product is than others, only that it is better. One has to be very careful in making statement about scores based on ordinal scales. For instance, if Ram’s position in his class is 10 and Mohan’s position is 40, it cannot be said that Ram’s position is four times as good as that of Mohan and this would make no sense at all. It only permit the ranking of items from highest to lowest It has no absolute values, and the real difference between adjacent rank may not ne equal.

7. Example The use of an ordinal scale implies a statement of “greater than” and “less than” (an equality statement is also acceptable) without being state how much greater or less. The real difference between rank 1 & 2 may be more or less than the difference between 4 & 5. Since the number of this scale have only rank meaning, the appropriate measure of central tendency is the median. A percentile or quartile is use for measuring dispersion Correlation are restricted to various rank order method.

8. Interval Scale of Measurement In this scale the value of zero is assign arbitrarily and therefore we can not take ratio of two measurements. It doesn’t have the capacity to measure the complete absence of trait or characteristics. But we can take ratio for intervals. It provide more powerful measurement than ordinal scale. It also incorporates the concept of equality of interval. Mean can be use for arithmetic operation and standard deviation can be use for dispersion.

9. Example Some examples of variables that use interval scales would be time, temperature (Celsius), temperature (Fahrenheit), etc. When using a  twelve hour clock , we can compare the time of 4:00 in the afternoon to 8:00 in the evening. It is possible to say that the difference in time is four hours (8:00 − 4:00). Please see the illustration below.

10. On a comparable  twenty-four hour clock , we can compare the time of 16:00 in the afternoon to 20:00 in the evening. It is possible to say that the difference in time is four hours (20:00 − 16:00). Please see the illustration above. If we look at the ratios of these numbers [4/2 = 2, and 18/16 = 1.125], the ratios are different, indicating that these ratios have no meaning.

11. Ratio Scale of Measurement If two measurements are in ratio scale, then we can take ratios of these measurements. The zero in the scale is absolute Zero Ratio scale represent the actual amount of variables Measures of physical dimensions such as weight, height, distance, etc. are the examples All statistical techniques are usable with ratio scales and all manipulations that one can carry out with real numbers can also be carried out with ratio scale values Multiplications and division can be used with this scale but not with other scale values Hence the ‘Nominal Scale’ is the least precise type of scale and ‘Ratio Scale’ is the most precise type of scale.

12. Example Money is measured in a ratio scale A sum of Rs. 100 is twice as large as Rs. 50 A sum of Rs. 0 means absence of any money and is thus an absolute zero. Weight, Volume, Area or Length are also the examples of ratio scale.

13. Problems in Measurement Scaling Problem related with Respondent Situation Measurer Instrument

14. Test of Sound Measurement/ Characteristics of Good Measurement/ Goodness of Measures Validity Reliability Practicality

15. Validity Validity refers to the accuracy of the measurement. It means the ability of a scale to measure what is supposed to e measured. In other words, Validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to measure. For example, behavior of employees to measure consumer satisfaction in a big shopping mall is a validity issue. As behavior of employees is not the only determinant of consumer satisfaction rather various others factors such as pricing policies, discount, parking facility and others may be responsible for generating consumer satisfaction.

16. Hence, the tool that was designed to measure consumer satisfaction from “employee’s behavior” may not be valid measurement tool. The researcher are always concerned about the validity of their measuring instrument.

17. Reliability It refers to the extent to which a scale produces consistent results if repeated measurement are made on the characteristic. It means reliability has to do with the accuracy and precision of a measurement procedure. In other words, a scale or test is reliable to the extent that repeat measurement made by it under constant conditions will give the same result. Reliability is a necessary contributor to validity but is not a sufficient condition for validity.

18. Practicality It’s an instrument can be judged in terms of economy, convenience and interpretability. From the operational point of view, the measuring instrument ought to be practical i.e., it should be economical, convenient and interpretable.