Hello Norchène,

According to the refrences below you can have a clear opinion :

Rossiter, J. R. (2002). The C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development in marketing. International journal of research in marketing, 19(4), 305-335./

Diamantopoulos, A. (2005). The C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development in marketing: a comment. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 22(1), 1-9 Gerbing, D. W., & Anderson, J. C. (1988). An updated paradigm for scale development incorporating unidimensionality and its assessment. Journal of marketing research, 186-192..

Churchill Jr, G. A. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of marketing research, 64-73.

Smith, A. M. (1999). Some problems when adopting Churchill's paradigm for the development of service quality measurement scales. Journal of Business Research, 46(2), 109-120.

Flynn, L. R., & Pearcy, D. (2001). Four subtle sins in scale development: Some suggestions for strengthening the current paradigm. International Journal of Market Research, 43(4), 409.

Kindly Regards

Samy

When it comes to paradigms for marketing research, most researchers are actually following "positivist" paradigm, whereas there are two more competing paradigms like "Constructivist" and "Critical theory". In a positivist paradigm, we are more concerned with generalizability of findings and prediction (mostly data centered, quanti.). In constructivist paradigm, we are more interested in structure and deeper understanding, and less on generalization and prediction (quali. researchers are here). Critical theory is more about total view including power and political aspects of research issues. For example, if I am interested in what determines customers' preference for natural food, I may collect quantitative data and analyze this in a quanti. model (positivist). In contrast, if I am interested to know what ideas shape customers' overall perception of natural food, I might go for a focus group interview and do a text analysis to find a perception structure (constructivist). Critical theory approach will look into how natural foods are not widespread since there is a big impact of "food politics" of not supporting such foods at the policy level. How about dominant retailers of conventional foods feel threatened because of natural food dealers?

Practically, the positivist and constructivist paradigms are mostly in use for developing marketing constructs. Now which one is better? There is no single answer because they may not be substitute to each other at all. Rather, these paradigms may work well as complementary to each other. It all depends on your research questions and objectives. Hope it helps.

It depends if you want to :

- developp a reflective scale: use churchill (1979)

- create a fomative index : in this case, use

Diamantopoulos, A., Riefler, P., & Roth, K. P. (2008). Advancing formative measurement models. Journal of Business Research, 61, 12, 1203-1218.

Diamantopoulos, A., & Winklhofer, H. M. (2001). Index construction with formative indicators: an alternative to scale development. Journal of Marketing Research, 38, 2, 269- 277.

MacKenzie, S., Podsakoff, P., Podsakoff, N. (2011). Construct measurement and validation procedures in MIS and behavioral research: Integrating new and existing techniques. MIS Quarterly, 35, 2, 293-334.

- identify single item : use Bergkvist, Lars; Rossiter, John R.  Tailor-made single-item measures of doubly concrete constructs, International Journal of Advertising. 2009, Vol. 28 Issue 4, p607-621. 

You should consider Rasch scale development, a sophisticated scale development approach.

That's a great list from Samy. I encourage my PhD candidates to choose their scale development protocols wisely. They usually opt for the Churchill model, and that has always satisfied their examiners. Francis

Thanks for your answers

Yes Francis Arthur Buttle : That's why I asked this question 

A lot of Phd students think there's just Churchill ... 

Thanks again 

Here are some "how to"books:

1. Scale Construction and Psychometrics for Social and Personality Psychology (The SAGE Library of Methods in Social and Personality Psychology)

an older book:

2. Scale Development: Theory and Applications (Applied Social Research Methods)Jun 1, 2011

by Robert F. DeVellis

One I particularly like:

3. Scaling Procedures: Issues and Applications Mar 12, 2003

by Richard G. Netemeyer, William O. Bearden and Subhash Sharma

Thanks Ronald E. Goldsmith for this references 

Thanks a lot for all your answers 

Churchill Paradigm is one of the best models not just in marketing but across many fields.

Churchill Jr, G. A. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of marketing research, 64-73.

Nice Dear Norchène Ben Dahmane Mouelhi