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The study investigates extreme response style (ERS) in cross‐cultural research. Through a four‐country application of the Greenleaf ERS measure, finds that ERS varies between cultures and across response formats. Evidence is also found that the acquiescence response style (ARS) varies between cultures and response formats. Through a series of ANOVAs, it is shown how a post hoc response style adjustment can be used to minimize between‐group differences for ERS and ARS. Finally, this study illustrates how cross‐cultural market researchers, using a marketing‐oriented survey instrument like the CETSCALE, could reach erroneous conclusions by failing to adjust for between‐group difference in ERS. Implications for cross‐cultural marketing research are discussed.

Psychometric analyses of self-administered questionnaire data tend to focus on items and instruments as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the functioning of the response scale and its impact on measurement precision. In terms of the response scale direction, existing evidence is mixed and inconclusive.

Three experiments are conducted to examine the functioning of response scales of different direction, ranging from agree to disagree versus from disagree to agree. The response scale direction effect is exemplified by two different latent constructs by applying the Rasch model for measurement.

The agree-to-disagree format generally performs better than the disagree-to-agree variant with spatial proximity between the statement and the agree-pole of the scale appearing to drive the effect. The difference is essentially related to the unit of measurement.

A careful investigation of the functioning of the response scale should be part of every psychometric assessment. The framework of Rasch measurement theory offers unique opportunities in this regard.

Besides content, validity and reliability, academics and practitioners utilising published measurement instruments are advised to consider any evidence on the response scale functioning that is available.

The study exemplifies the application of the Rasch model to assess measurement precision as a function of the design of the response scale. The methodology raises the awareness for the unit of measurement, which typically remains hidden.

Academic researchers love multi‐category answer formats, especially five‐ and seven‐point formats. More than a decade ago Josef Mazanec concluded that these formats may not the best choice, and that simple binary‐answer options are preferable in some empirical survey contexts. The purpose of the present study is to investigate empirically Mazanec's hypothesis in the context of the measurement of evaluative beliefs relating to fast‐food restaurants.

The authors conducted an online experiment that asked respondents to assess evaluative beliefs relating to fast‐food brands using either a forced binary (n=100) or a seven‐point answer format (n=100). The authors also measured preferences for each of the fast‐food restaurants, user friendliness, and recorded the actual completion times for the survey.

The results indicate that the full binary answer format outperforms the popular seven‐point multi‐category format with respect to stability, concurrent validity, and speed of completion.

Given the demonstrated strengths of full binary measures, they should be used more by both practitioners and academics when measuring evaluative beliefs.

This study provides empirical evidence of the strong performance of the forced binary‐answer format for the measurement of evaluative beliefs, and thus challenges current measurement practice among academics and practitioners.

This study aims to achieve broad insights into perceptions and attitudes of Turkish digital immigrants (DI) and digital natives (DN) toward native advertising (NA) format.

Based on extant review of literature, semi-structured interview questions helped to solicit subjective interpretations, perceptions and attitudes of Turkish consumers toward NA format. In-depth interviews with 36 participants were conducted.

The study gains new knowledge on issues related to NA format, such as self-determination of viewing, privacy and accuracy of information. Findings provide whys and wherefores for these undiscovered issues, as well as for preexisting themes such as format recall and recognition, disclosure, communication/marketing aims, attitudes toward NA format, brand and publisher, NA placement and “nativity” of the format. In terms of perceptions and attitudes of DIs and DNs, both similarities and differences exist. DNs consider viewing NA content under their own initiative, so their perceptions and attitudes toward NA are shaped accordingly.

The interviews were carried out in a single setting; with a convenience sample of consumers living in Izmir, Turkey. Certain age and education levels were considered desirable as main criteria for selection.

The study identifies consumer concerns on the NA format and content; and provides suggestions for advertisers, publishers and ad professionals on disclosure, relevancy and frequency of exposure, which can be applied in practice. Implications for public policy are also discussed.

This is the first known study to explore perceptions and attitudes of DIs and DNs toward NA format in the Turkish context. This study uncovers and discusses insights into underlying reasons of DI/DNs’ perceptions and attitudes. The study extends prior findings of quantitative research on NA, offering fruitful insights for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review past recommendations to correct for cultural biases in empirical survey data sets, and propose a framework that enables the researcher to assess the robustness of empirical findings from culture‐specific response styles (CSRS).

The paper proposes to analyze a set of derived data sets, including the original data as well as data corrected for response styles using theoretically plausible correction methods for the empirical data at hand. The level of agreement of results across correction methods indicates the robustness of findings to possible contamination of data by cross‐cultural response styles.

The proposed method can be used to inform researchers and data analysts about the extent to which the validity of their conclusions is threatened by data contamination and provides guidance regarding the results that can safely be reported.

Response styles can distort survey findings. CSRS are particularly problematic for researchers using multicultural samples because the resulting data contamination can lead to inaccurate conclusions about the research question under study.

The proposed approach avoids the disadvantages of ignoring the problem and interpreting spurious results or choosing one single correction technique that potentially introduces new kinds of data contamination.

The existence of variable response styles represents a major threat to the correct interpretation of market research findings. In international marketing, this threat is further increased due to samples of respondents from different cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this paper is to extend the investigation of differences in cross‐cultural response styles by studying full response patterns instead of extreme values, quantify the extent of the potential mistake of not accounting for cross‐cultural differences in response behaviour and present a simple way of testing whether or not data sets from various cultural backgrounds can be used without correcting for cross‐cultural response styles.

Two independent data sets are used. Extreme response style (ERS) scores are compared by testing for equality of proportions. Respondents' answer patterns are partitioned using the k‐means algorithm, the resulting differences between cultures tested using a Fisher's exact test for count data. The extent of inter‐cultural difference in responses is assessed using ANOVA.

Asian and Australian respondents differ significantly in ERS and full response patterns. Differences in cross‐cultural response patterns account for up to 6 per cent of the variance in the data, thus representing a significant potential source for misinterpretation in cross‐cultural studies.

International market researchers using samples including respondents from more than one cultural background have to be aware of the potential source of misinterpretation caused by cross‐cultural differences in response patterns. A simple ANOVA‐based procedure allows researchers to determine whether data can be used in its uncorrected form.

The paper investigates cross‐cultural response styles for new groups of respondents (Australian vs Asian), extends the study from the investigation of extreme values to full response patterns and gives market researchers in the international marketing context an indication of how high the level of potential misinterpretation can be and presents a simple means of checking how necessary it is to account for cross‐cultural differences in response behaviour.

Survey research has developed to become the default empirical approach to answering research questions in the field of hospitality (and many other fields of research within the social sciences). This paper aims to reflect on the use of survey research in hospitality and offers recommendations for improvement.

First, known dangers to validity associated with survey research are discussed. Next, a sample of studies recently published in leading hospitality journals is assessed in view of these known dangers. Finally, recommendations are offered for editors, reviewers, readers and authors to mitigate the risk of drawing invalid conclusions based on survey research.

Survey research is very common in hospitality research and is used to investigate a wide range of research questions and constructs under study. The nature of constructs studied, the answer scales used and the nature of the samples point to a substantial risk to the validity of conclusions drawn.

A number of risk mitigation measures are proposed that can help authors minimise the risks to validity arising from known dangers associated with survey research. These same risk mitigation measures can be used by editors and reviewers in the assessment of manuscripts and by readers to evaluate the validity of conclusions drawn in already published work.

The value of this study lies in reflecting from a distance on how the survey research is conducted in the social sciences in general and in hospitality research in specific. The paper reveals that some routine approaches particularly prone to undermining the validity of conclusions may have been adopted and offers a few suggestions how this risk can be mitigated.

Memory impairments in the elderly have been widely studied in the past. This study focuses on the effects of these memory impairments on the ability of mature consumers to respond to brand attitude scales. An experimental study investigates the impact of age and type of measurement scale on responses to brand attitude scales. Groups of seniors within the elderly market (55‐65, 66‐75, and over 75) are investigated as opposed to contrasting two extreme points on the continuum, namely the elderly versus the young. Three commonly used attitude scales were manipulated to determine how age interacts with the form of scale to generate response bias. Three types of response bias; extremity response, acquiescence, and item non‐response were investigated. Results indicate a significant interaction between age and type of scale. Implications of these results for those involved in marketing to seniors are highlighted.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on testing hypotheses derived from theories presented by leading scholars regarding possible sources of differences in reliability coefficients, using cross-sectional data from Japan and Malaysia.

A survey was conducted in Malaysia and Japan, both of them characterized as having collectivist values. Convenience sampling and the same method of survey administration, personal interviews by trained interviewers, was used in both countries.

The tests of the hypotheses regarding cultural, subcultural, and aging effects provide some results in line with the hypotheses, but they raise additional concerns about the possible sources of measurement differences and the applicability of theories and measures developed in one country to other countries and subcultures within countries. The major findings include the alpha reliability coefficient of the self-esteem scale (SSE) which is hypothesised to be lower than the alpha for the material value scale (MVS) and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) in the Malaysian and Japanese samples, but this difference only occurs for the Japanese sample.

The study findings highlight the challenges that researchers confront when conducting cross-cultural studies.

The present study systematically tests the reliability of measures developed in the West and employed in different countries (especially Asian countries). Although several assumptions and speculations have been made regarding the sources of potential bias in measures used when studying cultural and subcultural differences, little empirical work supports these views. Our study fills this gap.

The trend towards internationalisation in many service industries has increased the need for both managers and academics to collect cross‐cultural/national consumer‐perceived service quality data. Failure to establish cross‐cultural equivalence and to detect differences in cross‐national response bias will, however, affect data comparability, may invalidate the research results and could therefore lead to incorrect inferences about attitudes and behaviours across national groups. By initially focussing on developments in the mono‐cultural service quality literature, a framework is presented whereby academics and managers can assess the potential impact of these international measurement issues. Existing cross‐cultural service quality literature is reviewed and the extent to which these issues are addressed is highlighted. Methods for detecting and correcting cross‐national response biases are discussed.