The items used for measurement in marketing discipline lets say consumer behavior is it better to refer to new articles or old articles. because sometimes some articles develop their items from literature review and test those items for their study. can i take their items for my measurement items?
To prepare the research questionnaire, is it necessary to refer to latest articles or we need to follow the item measurements from old articles?
You should review both the latest as well as the oldest / original questionnaires so that you can assess which one is useful / relevant to your research construct that you are trying to measure.
Unless in certain situations, the original author who had revised the questionnaire to address certain weaknesses / limitations in the older version(s), then you should adopt / adapt the latest revision. If you didn't perform literature review rigorously, you might have adopted the old questionnaire - but once you seek approval from the questionnaire's author (as part of the research ethics requirement), the author might ask you to use his / her latest questionnaire etc.
If you have access to the original articles (which should be possible), then reference them and mention that the scale (possibly in modified form) was also used in other contributions.
Dear Shamima,
the first problem is to get the complete questionnaire (as an appendix to the main text etc.). The second problem is to check whatever that questionnaire has passed the test of time -- i.e. the paper itself is cited and the questionnaire produced valuable results to be used for replication studies. All this mean that relatively old (3-6 years old) articles is the best choice. See the enclosed the paper with a rare description of the questionnaire used in general and in parts in a dozen of followed studies..
I don't think it is the question of how old the articles are, but of the questionnaire relevance for your research objecrives. For example, SERVQUAL is quite old, but still used by many researchers.
To prepare the research questionnaire, is it necessary to refer to latest articles or we need to follow the item measurements from old articles?
You should review both the latest as well as the oldest / original questionnaires so that you can assess which one is useful / relevant to your research construct that you are trying to measure.
Unless in certain situations, the original author who had revised the questionnaire to address certain weaknesses / limitations in the older version(s), then you should adopt / adapt the latest revision. If you didn't perform literature review rigorously, you might have adopted the old questionnaire - but once you seek approval from the questionnaire's author (as part of the research ethics requirement), the author might ask you to use his / her latest questionnaire etc.
You can follow the methodology used in Rossiter 2002 (The C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development in marketing.
International Journal of Research in Marketing, 19(4), 305–335.) and in my paper Bezes 2014 ( Definition and psychometric validation of a measurement index common to website and store images, Journal of Business Research, 2014, 67, 12, 2559-2578 ).
The essence of a questionnaire is that it provides information to meet the objectives of a research study. i.e. the research problem has been correctly identified; the relevant constructs (things to be measured) and their indicators also found … and then the questionnaire should have the right questions to provide the decision information needed to answer the research problem.
If the research is being repeated over time it is a good idea to use the same questions so the results can be compared (i.e. using “old” articles). This of course assumes that the prior information gathered did indeed provide useful information. You may have to add in questions to take account of changes in the marketplace.
However, if you are starting out afresh you cannot assume that you are talking to a target market and the environment that is “the same” as described in old articles. Generally you need to search for/confirm the correct variables that are associated with your research problem and objectives..
The following sources may further help, namely: it is a cost-effective approach for using existing instruments that have evidences of reliability/validity, whereby a comparison of your own findings with other studies is available. Furthermore, a literature search of existing instruments helps strengthen the quality/effectiveness if you ultimately determine to develop your own instruments. In case that the original instruments are developed/restricted in a different time/country/culture, a modification may be considered (see: Switzer et al, 1999; Bradburn et al, 2004, pp. 23-26, 294; Boynton and Greenhalgh, 2004, p. 1313).
- Boynton, P. M. and Greenhalgh, T. (2004) Hands-on guide to questionnaire research: Selecting, designing, and developing your questionnaire, British Medical Journal, 328, 7451, pp. 1312-1315.
- Bradburn, N. M., Sudman, S. and Wansink, B. (2004) Asking questions : the definitive guide to questionnaire design - for market research, political polls, and social and health questionnaires. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. .
- Kimberlin, C. L. and Winterstein, A. G. (2008) Validity and reliability of measurement instruments used in research, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 65, 23, pp. 2276-2284.
- Switzer, G. E., Wisniewski, S. R., Belle, S. H., Dew, M. A. and Schultz, R. (1999) Selecting, developing, and evaluating research instruments, Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 34, 8, pp. 399-409.
The basic premise of preapring a questionnaire is to elicit responses from target sample on a specific problem. The questions should be framed in such a manner that relevant feedback is received to meet the objectives of the study. One may refer other instruments on the same topic as a guide but as mentioned above your questionnaire should be able to elicit info on the various dimensions relevant to the research topic on hand
While its most appropriate to refer latest articles but relevance should also be considered. you can also combine your literature review learnings about questioner with some focus group discussions, or online surveys about the item. which may help further enrich your questioner according to your specific scenario.Now a days its quite easy to conduct online surveys on so many social media forums.
hope it added something to current answers.
Dear Shamima
My suggestion is that you use bibliographic review in any situation. This will help to support the propositions or hypothesis of research. It will also facilitate justifications for the research contributions.
Success in the project.
greetings
For making a research questionnaire, first of all, get the help from the literature related to your research objectives. Make a sample questionnaire. Take this questionnaire with you to different sites for a pilot study. Imbibe their opinions to this questionnaire. Get expert opinions. Change the questionnaire accordingly. Your final questionnaire will take time.
Best wishes.
In any case, a review of literature and past research in the field of your study is required. The preparation of the questionnaire, of course, is based on definitions of the concepts that you have included in your analytical model. In any case, it is worthwhile to look at concrete operationalizations that have proved to be appropriate in different social contexts.
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