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Inspired by objective hermeneutics (Oevermann, 1984, 1996, 1999; Oevermann et al., 1979; Weller, 2010; Wohrab-Sahr, 2003) and qualitative validation (Adcock and Collier, 2001; Martis, 2006; Maxwell, 1992), the authors present this essay with the aim of proposing an objective hermeneutic approach to qualitative validation.

In order to develop this approach, the authors consider the contributions of Martis (2006) and Maxwell (1992) about theoretical–empirical validity, Adcock and Collier's propositions (2001) regarding the conceptualization and evaluation of phenomena through specific levels, tasks and stages of validation and the principles of objective hermeneutic interpretation proposed by Wohlrab-Sahr (2003).

Three main contributions are considered: theoretical–empirical validity (Martis, 2006; Maxwell, 1992); levels of validation – theoretical framework, systematized concept, indicators and results (Adcock and Collier, 2001); stages of validation – content validity, convergent validity and nomological validity (Adcock and Collier, 2001); and principles of objective hermeneutic interpretation – sequential interpretation, mental–experimental explanation of possible interpretations, preservation rule, literal character of interpretation, totality, reflection about knowledge used in the analysis and group of interpreters (Wohrab-Sahr, 2003). These contributions were related to establishing a framework that illustrates the proposed objective hermeneutic approach to qualitative validation.

The authors intend to offer to the scope of organization studies an alternative for validation, so that the voices of the researched can be heard. Furthermore, the authors seek to guide researchers as to how to respect and protect what is heard, in order to avoid any invasion of others' discourse.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on concepts of validity and validation of social marketing research (SMR) with a view to enhancing SMR design and to inform SMR practice.

The paper defines and presents concepts of validity in a manner that sheds light on the unique issues facing SMR and sets the stage for future research.

The paper introduces an integrated model representing the variety of relationships that exist amongst a range of validity concepts that will assist methodological practice and increased rigor in future studies. The authors also introduce a matrix on research paradigms that can support the integration of a range of philosophical considerations to SMR research design.

The “quality” of research is being determined by those at the leading edge of their own paradigm without reference to other points of view. The authors argue that these sub‐processes of determining the validity of research outcomes are a challenge to the “discipline” of SMR and that SMR is at risk of becoming too narrowly focussed. Furthermore, the authors believe this is limiting SMR's potential to contribute to the broader domain of business or social research.

Social marketing is an interdisciplinary practice. The paradigms of research within the social marketing domain are still being argued and are the subject of much debate. The authors believe that the conceptual frameworks developed for this paper will enhance the practices of research in the field of social marketing.

The paper provides a new conceptual framework for those developing SMR. This framework aims to integrate others' theories and provide a simplified framework for consideration of issues of validation in SMR.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand current concept testing practice and its role in the new product development process; identify the relationship, if any, between concept testing design and perceptions of its effectiveness; determine what evidence product managers or research consultants have for the reliability and validity of current concept testing.

A survey of new product managers collected detailed information on their organization's most recent traditional or conjoint concept testing project. In the study of marketing research consultants, 100 firms were asked to provide the publicly available information about the reliability and validity track record of their concept testing services.

There are differences between practices for incrementally and radically new concepts. Practitioners prefer to keep their information proprietary, so little has been learned about how concept tests should be designed, despite the thousands of concepts tested every year.

The paper identifies current concept testing practice, including which methods/models are used, what is known about their reliability and validity, and the perceived problems and desired improvements.

The paper identifies how concept testing is currently carried out and those issues most in need of future research.

Although there has been a great deal of interest in the idea of accounting for human resources and considerable theoretical discussion of the problems of measuring human resource value and cost, there has been virtually no empirical research on the validity of proposed methods and models. This paper reports some preliminary evidence on the validity of selected surrogates of a person's value to an organization. It describes a field study conducted to determine the convergent and discriminant validity of three possible surrogates of a person's value to an organization: replacement cost, compensation, and a performance measure.

The need for inclusive and logically consistent representation of diverse and even confronting viewpoints on the domain knowledge has been widely discussed in the literature in the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to propose a generic model for building an open coherent diversified knowledge organization system (KOS).

The proposed model incorporates a generic epistemological component, the validity scope type, assigned to each statement in the constructed KOS. Statements are clustered by their association with various validity scope types into internally coherent subsystems. These subsystems form a knowledge organization network connected through the universal (consensual) subsystems with more than one validity scope type. The model extends the Galili’s Cultural Content Representation paradigm, which divides the knowledge content of a scientific theory into two confronting parts: body and periphery.

The knowledge organization network model makes it possible to comparatively examine similarities and differences among various viewpoints and theories on the domain knowledge. The presented approach conforms with the principle of Open Knowledge Network initiative for creation of open accessible knowledge.

The proposed model can be used for ontological reasoning by a variety of information services, such as ontology-based decision-support and learning systems, diversified search and customer management applications.

The model enables explicit representation of social and cultural minority voices and historical knowledge in the KOS.

The main contribution of the proposed model is that it generalizes and enhances various previously proposed representations of epistemological aspects of KOS and allows for multiple inter-linked subsystems to coherently co-exist as part of the extensible network.

The purpose of this paper is to show how bibliometrics would benefit from a stronger programme of construct validity.

The value of the construct validity concept is demonstrated by applying this approach to the evaluation of the h-index, a widely used metric.

The paper demonstrates that the h-index comprehensively fails any test of construct validity. In simple terms, the metric does not measure what it purports to measure. This conclusion suggests that the current popularity of the h-index as a topic for bibliometric research represents wasted effort, which might have been avoided if researchers had adopted the approach suggested in this paper.

This study is based on the analysis of a single bibliometric concept.

The conclusion that the h-index fails any test in terms of construct validity implies that the widespread use of this metric within the higher education sector as a management tool represents poor practice, and almost certainly results in the misallocation of resources.

This paper suggests that the current enthusiasm for the h-index within the higher education sector is misplaced. The implication is that universities, grant funding bodies and faculty administrators should abandon the use of the h-index as a management tool. Such a change would have a significant effect on current hiring, promotion and tenure practices within the sector, as well as current attitudes towards the measurement of academic performance.

The originality of the paper lies in the systematic application of the concept of construct validity to bibliometric enquiry.

Sets out to report on lessons learned by carrying out a concept test in Thailand. Where appropriate, aims to compare the adopted approach with the “regular” way by which the reported company assesses the potentials of new products. Based on these reflections, the authors seek to identify future research directives and develop managerial implications.

The authors present their experiences collected during a concept‐testing project in Thailand. In a separate section, they judge the degree to which the findings can be generalized.

Describes circumstances that strongly influence the validity of the research results in an international context, in particular sampling method, the concept presentation, the questioning procedure, country‐specific market conditions, and the assessment of learning behavior.

The authors suggest future research avenues as they relate to further conceptual development of product diffusion models in an international context. Particularly the efforts to study the impact of culture on consumer innovativeness, adopting culture conceptualizations which realistically reflect consumer behavior, are relevant.

The authors make recommendations as to how to cope with managerial unfamiliarity that arises in an international context: defining locus of control, being aware of where biases enter and set, the findings into the research context, defining the value‐add of additional information on learning behavior.

This paper fulfils an identified need to provide more insights that show how practitioners manage the environmental unfamiliarity that arises in the context of international concept‐testing projects.

The aims and objectives of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) have been defeated by the intrusion of domestic laws of different contracting states in the interpretation of the provisions of this Convention. One of the most abused channels of this un-uniform interpretation is through art 4 of the CISG, which excludes the matters of validity and property from the Convention’s jurisdiction. This paper, therefore, aims to critically analyze the dangers of unsystematic reliance on the domestic laws in the interpretation of art 4 of the CISG on matters involving transnational validity and property.

The paper will use doctrinal methodology with critical and analytical approaches. The paper will incisively study the doctrines, theories and principles of law associated with validity of commercial contracts and the implications of exclusion of the doctrine of “validity” under the CISG.

The findings and contribution to knowledge will be by way of canvassing for a uniform transnational validity doctrine that will streamline and position the CISG to serve as a uniform international commercial convention.

This paper adopted a conceptual approach. Even though the paper ventilated the views of many writers on the issue of application of the doctrine of validity under the CISG, the paper, however, carved its own niche by making original recommendations on how to create a uniform validity jurisprudence under the CISG.

This article consists of two parts, starting with a discussion about generally accepted quality concepts in research, criticising them from the qualitative perspective. The article concludes by suggesting alternative concepts to be used for securing quality when pursuing qualitative research.

New product concept screening, i.e., selecting a few viable innovative concepts from numerous candidates, involves high stakes and is complicated and resource intensive. Over the years, there has been heated debate about the relative merit of monadic (sequential) tests vs that of preference-based paired comparisons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study proposes the Generalizability Theory as a framework to assess and compare the performance of traditional monadic test with the Adaptive Concept Screening (ACS) in terms of their testing results and psychometric quality.

Using 50 yogurt concepts and two independent groups of respondents, the results indicate that ACS requires a significant smaller sample of respondents to achieve a necessary minimum G coefficient for decision making. Moreover, ACS offers a more discriminating and reliable solution for early stage concept screening as manifested by a higher G coefficient and greater percentage of variance due to the selected concepts given the same sampling design.

The results lend strong support to ACS as a more cost-effective method for screening new product concepts and the Generalizability Theory as a systematic framework for assessing concept testing methods.

This study adopts the Generalizability Theory framework to assess the validity of new product concept screening method.