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Given the limited empirical work investigating personal characteristics of industrial sales people as related to their reward valences and the limitation of measuring valences at a single level, previous research is extended by examining the relationships between industrial sales people′s personal characteristics and their valences for multiple levels of various rewards. A conceptual framework is presented, previous studies reviewed, hypotheses offered, the methodology explained, and the results and implications of the study discussed.

Latent constructs represent the building blocks of marketing theory. The purpose of this paper is to provide marketing researchers with a practical procedure for writing construct definitions.

The paper reviews important contributions to construct definition in the literature from marketing, management, psychology and the philosophy of science. The authors expound construct definition in both practical and theoretical spheres to motivate the proposed procedure.

A six‐step procedure for construct definition and redefinition in marketing is developed. The proposed procedure addresses important aspects of definitions including the level of abstraction, scope, nomological relationships, explanatory and predictive power, ambiguity, vagueness, and preventing construct proliferation.

While techniques for developing measures have received a great deal of attention, those for the earlier step of construct definition have not. Researchers will benefit from more precise definitions through improved model specification, better measures, and more reliable determination of the direction of causality. The role of the individual researcher's linguistic skill in construct definition must still be determined.

Marketing practitioners can also use the procedure to define latent constructs for which they must develop measures.

The literature on construct definition is fragmentary, scattered across disciplines and occasionally even arcane. It is further often descriptive of what a good definition looks like rather than prescriptive of how a good definition can be developed. The six steps are simple, broadly applicable, based on both theory and practical experience, consist of relatively few discrete steps, and feed directly into the modern measure development paradigm in marketing.

This paper describes the on‐going work done by Hydro‐Québec to optimize the settings of automatic devices installed in its main power plants to maintain secure operation under extreme contingencies. The automatic generator tripping and load shedding system (RPTC) described in this paper is installed at the Churchill Falls hydroelectric power plant (5,500 MW) in Labrador. Data mining techniques such as decision trees and regression trees have been used. Real time snapshots of the Hydro‐Québec power system collected over a 5 year period have been used to generate large amounts of results by transient stability simulations. The processing of these data has been done using software developed by the University of Liege. This approach gives the most relevant parameters and finds optimal settings for the RPTC system, minimizing the number of tripped generator units while maintaining the same performance in terms of security coverage. New operation rules can thus be established.

This paper provides a deeper examination of the fundamentals of commonly‐used techniques – such as coefficient alpha and factor analysis – in order to more strongly link the techniques used by marketing and social researchers to their underlying psychometric and statistical rationale.

A wide‐ranging review and synthesis of psychometric and other measurement literature both within and outside the marketing field is used to illuminate and reconsider a number of misconceptions which seem to have evolved in marketing research.

The research finds that marketing scholars have generally concentrated on reporting what are essentially arbitrary figures such as coefficient alpha, without fully understanding what these figures imply. It is argued that, if the link between theory and technique is not clearly understood, use of psychometric measure development tools actually runs the risk of detracting from the validity of the measures rather than enhancing it.

The focus on one stage of a particular form of measure development could be seen as rather specialised. The paper also runs the risk of increasing the amount of dogma surrounding measurement, which runs contrary to the spirit of this paper.

This paper shows that researchers may need to spend more time interpreting measurement results. Rather than simply referring to precedence, one needs to understand the link between measurement theory and actual technique.

This paper presents psychometric measurement and item analysis theory in easily understandable format, and offers an important set of conceptual tools for researchers in many fields.

The purpose of this paper is to assess readiness of Iranian micro‐finance institutes (MFIs) to perform micro‐insurance activities.

A five‐variable model was used. Each variable was assessed using a special dimension of readiness. Row data were gathered through a closed interview containing 34 questions using the Likert scale. Interviewees included 30 experts working as top managers in 15 selected Iranian MFIs (consisting of banks, finance and credit institutes and Qarzol‐hasane).

The score for general readiness of MFIs in Iran revealed a remarkable figure. Accordingly, it is suggested that these institutes should enter this business field incrementally and invest in this particular domain.

The sample was not truly random, as the professionals in this field are not easily accessible. The factors that were used for the study were based on a review of past researches and the factors were chosen after deliberation and reliability tests. However, this study may not have chosen all possible factors. The research findings are limited to MFIs of Iran. The findings cannot be generalized to other institutions or industries.

The paper reveals the importance of the readiness assessment in successful microinsurance implementation by Islamic MFIs and introduces a basic model for this type of readiness assessment that can be used in other countries.

The purpose of the study was to benchmark meta-analytical conceptualizations of business-to-business (B2B) seller skills against empirical evidence in services firms.

The study is based on a deductive approach and questionnaire survey focusing on a range of services firms from different industries and corporate sizes. A total of 389 questionnaires out of 732 were returned, generating a response rate of 53.1%.

The study aims to provide empirical evidence and structures relating to B2B sellers' capabilities in a seven-dimensional conceptualization, all of which can be used in services firms to improve their seller efficiency. Each seller skill dimension performs a different function in the sales services process.

The authors conclude that the verified meta-analytical conceptualizations of B2B seller skills seem valid and reliable in services firms. Nevertheless, further research needs to be carried out, based on other company characteristics as well as industries.

It reduces the risk perceived by customers in B2B services settings through cultivating the sellers' capabilities, based on the seven-dimensional evidence of seller skills to enhance sales performance.

The study contributes to existing theory and previous studies by offering a foundation on which to structure sales performance indicators in services firms. Specifically, it contributes to structuring B2B seller skills across a selection of principal dimensions in B2B services settings.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review and synthesize the scale development practices in hospitality and tourism and propose updated guidelines applicable for both reflective and composite scales.

Using a critical review of a sample of scale development papers published in six top-tier tourism and hospitality journals, the current guidelines' weaknesses and strengths and their applications are identified. Updated procedures are proposed to overcome these weaknesses.

This review showed several issues in applying existing guidelines, including incomplete and unclear data collection processes, inconsistent data analysis processes including validity/reliability assessment and lack of criteria to identify and assess composite scales. As such, this paper proposes updated guidelines by incorporating the confirmatory composite analysis to assess composite scales.

This paper offers unique theoretical and methodological contributions to scale development literature, by identifying the shortcomings of current practices of scale development and propose guidelines for both reflective and composite scales. The current scale development procedures cannot be applied for composite scales, and so the results of composite scale development using the current procedures are questionable. The updated guidelines by the current study improve new scales' accuracy, reliability and validity.

MATERIALS are frequently considered as divisible into two classes, primary sources and secondary sources. This view is useful, though not foolproof. In the first class are those sources which yield the very first information on any subject or event. They cannot be ignored. Secondary sources comprise the elaborations of primary sources, the theory and conjecture to which the original testimony gives rise. The value of original sources is obvious. Mr. Winston Churchill's account of Marlborough will, no doubt, be hailed in the future as “authoritative,” and, all things considered, justly so. But at best the author can only give his own interpretation of the Duke's letters and dispatches. That interpretation may be correct, or only very slightly in error; a fact which does not justify the conduct of the next student of Marlborough if he contents himself with accepting Mr. Churchill's conclusions on a few main events without bothering to look at such original testimony as may be extant. True, an examination of the primary sources may convince the student of the justness of Mr. Churchill's reading. On the other hand, a fresh mind may detect some small but significant point which has persistently escaped the other worker. Original sources may often be scrappy and unsatisfactory, apparently of small value, uninspiring even: but, in that they are unique, they cannot be disregarded. I can give no catalogue of what might be regarded as materials of this class, no list, at least, applicable for all topics to be investigated. If indeed that were possible we would be faced with the difficulty of deciding what were the primary sources of each separate investigation. For example, the Acts of Parliament would certainly be an original authority to the research worker who had the Revolution of 1688 as his subject. But would he regard in the same light the Diary of Narcissus Luttrel who lived through the stirring events of that time, and recorded them as they appeared to him?