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As good as existing measurements of entrepreneurial potential (EP) may appear in the literature, they are fragmented, suffer from the lack of theory integration and clarity, are inadequately specified and assessed and the dimensions are unordered by importance. These limitations of EP metrics have hindered entrepreneurial practice and theory advancement. There is a risk of atomistic evolution of the topic among “siloed” scholars and room for repetitions without real progress. The purpose of this paper was to take stock of existing measurements from which the authors developed a new instrument that is brief and inclusive.

The authors followed several steps to develop and validate the new instrument, including construct domain name specification, literature review, structured interviews with entrepreneurs, face validation by experts, semantic validation and statistical validation after two waves of data collected on employee and entrepreneur samples.

A clear operational definition of EP is proposed and serves as a starting point towards a unified EP theory. The new EP instrument is made up of 34 items classified into seven dimensions, which in order of importance are proactive innovativeness, management skill, calculated risk-taking, social skill, financial literacy, entrepreneurial competencies prone to cognitive and heuristic biases and bricolage. The authors provide evidence for reliability and validity of the new instrument.

Although a model is not the model, the authors discuss several ways in which the new measurement model can be used by different stakeholders to promote entrepreneurship.

The authors discuss the domain representativeness of the new scale and argue that the literature can meaningfully benefit from a non-fuzzy approach to what makes the EP of an individual. By developing a new EP instrument, the authors set an important pre-condition for advancing entrepreneurial theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to find evidence of construct validity in a Mexican population for a socially responsible consumption (SRC) measurement scale originally proposed for Colombia.

Using a quantitative approach and a correlational scope, factorial invariance and differential item functioning analyses were performed on the SRC measurement scale based on data from 323 Colombian graduate students and 456 Mexican students.

The empirical evidence confirms that the factor structure of the SRC measurement scale applied in Colombia remains valid in the Mexican context.

Limitations pertain to the attitudinal measurement scale and the non-representativeness of the chosen samples.

When identifying a structure for SRC, particularly considering the formulation of marketing strategies and business reputation, companies should consider the new criteria of buying consumption.

For the first time in Latin America, an SRC measurement scale is constructed, and its construct validity is evaluated for two countries: Mexico and Colombia. The authors thus provide empirical evidence for the hypothesis that SRC measurement is contingent on the expression of measurement considering the socioeconomic and cultural context in which the study is conducted.

Buscar evidencia de validez de constructo en una población mexicana para la escala de medida del Consumo Socialmente Responsable (CSR) propuesta para Colombia.

Con un enfoque cuantitativo y alcance correlacional se realiza un análisis de invarianza factorial y de funcionamiento diferencial del ítem (DIF), de la escala de medida del CSR en 323 estudiantes de posgrado colombianos y 456 mexicanos.

La evidencia empírica confirma que la estructura factorial de la escala de medida del CSR aplicado en Colombia se mantiene en el contexto mexicano.

Las propias de las escalas de medida actitudinal y de la no representatividad de las muestras elegidas.

Cuando se identifica una estructura de un CSR, las empresas en la formulación de estrategias de mercadeo y reputación empresarial, deben considerar los nuevos criterios de compra de consumo.

Por primera vez en Latinoamérica se construye una escala de medida del CSR y se realiza una validez de constructo considerando dos países como lo son México y Colombia. En este sentido, se aporta evidencia empírica a la hipótesis según la cual la medición del CSR es contingente en su expresión de medida al contexto socioeconómico y cultural donde se realice el estudio.

This paper specifies how to construct and validate an instrument based on multi‐item scales for the cataloguing and measurement of managerial and organizational capabilities on the basis of management perceptions. The construction and reduction of the scales have been reinforced by the Delphi and retesting techniques. The use of this methodology was illustrated in a sample of Spanish industrial firms. The paper enhances the value of the instruments for a resource‐based view with regard to the faithful and rigorous measurement of its key concept, distinctive competences. The scales created provide consistent empirical evidence to remove doubts surrounding managerial self‐evaluation, including those arising from problems of self‐esteem and reinforcement effects. In addition, the paper provides empirical evidence to support the predictive ability of distinctive competences on current and long‐term performance variability.

The purpose of this paper is to help enhance the scholarly conversation about the essential nature of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) construct, its dimensionality and measurement. The authors focus on how EO was defined and measured in various contexts, which is the basis for the proposed five-dimensional EO scale (FDEOS).

Survey was conducted in design industry in China. A pilot test was conducted with 20 Chinese firms. Questionnaires were sent to 1,200 firms. A total of 408 complete and valid questionnaires were received.

It was found that a behavior aspect of EO as a second-order reflective model had a greater degree of agreement among scholarly community. As a result, a new FDEOS was proposed from behavioral perspective. Data were collected from 408 firms of design industry in a big developing country.

While five-dimensional EO construct is a well-recognized concept in the literature on entrepreneurship, little is known about its measurement. The research reported in this paper provides support for this assertion and develops a new scale, FDEOS, that designed to be neutral with regard to industry context and type of organization.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale for the measurement of service quality in pharmaceutical supply chains.

A total of 413 pharmaceutical retailers working in the two biggest cities of Pakistan responded to a survey. Confirmatory factor analysis developed a valid and reliable service quality measurement scale with four dimensions and ten items.

Findings of this research are consistent with other service quality studies. There is no universal set of dimensions and items that determine service quality across a section of service industries. Service quality measurement must be adapted to fit the context.

Convenience sampling was undertaken for this research. This research contributes to the measurement of service quality by developing a valid and reliable measurement scale in a previously ignored sector.

The scale developed in this research can be used by pharmaceutical distribution companies in Pakistan to measure, control and improve the service quality provided to pharmaceutical retailers.

This research provides framework to researchers to build up more pharmaceutical supply chains service quality scale development studies in similar situations so that more concrete generalizations can be made.

This paper aims to present the fundamental aspects for the development and validation (D&V) of attitudes’ measurement scale, as well as its practical aspects that are not deeply explored in books and manuals. These aspects are the results of a long experience of the authors and arduous learning with errors and mistakes.

The nature of this paper is methodological and can be very useful for an initial reading on the theme that it rests. This paper presents four D&V stages: literature review or interviews with experts; theoretical or face validation; semantic validation or validation with possible respondents; and statistical validation.

This is a methodological paper, and its main finding is the usefulness for researchers.

The main implication of this paper is to support researchers on the process of D&V of measurement scales.

Became a step-by-step guide to researchers on the D&V of measurement scales.

Support researchers on their data collection and analysis.

This is a practical guide, with tips from seasoned scholars to help researchers on the D&V of measurement scales.

An important assumption in testing theoretical models is measurement invariance. However, little research in construction project management investigates the issue of measurement invariance. To bridge the gap, the current paper aims at: first, testing trust measurement invariance in project teams across gender; second, delineating various measurement invariance tests and demonstrating them with Amos; and last but not least, increasing researchers' awareness about measurement invariance issue in the construction project management field.

The measurement invariance of trust across gender is investigated using survey data collected from architects in project design teams of A-level architectural design institutes in China. Multisample confirmatory factor analysis is conducted with Amos to test configural invariance, metric invariance, scalar invariance, factor covariance and variance invariance, error variance invariance, latent mean invariance of the Chinese version of McAllister's two-dimension trust scale.

All the test results of the above invariances are supportive. Goodness-of-fit indexes such as CFI deserve more empirical studies to verify.

The results imply that the trust structure of male and female architects is equivalent. In other words, male and female architect data of trust research in construction project management could be aggregated.

It is recommended that test of measurement invariance should be conducted while new measurement scales are under construction.

Since all the invariance tests are rarely conducted within a single study, the current research is the first paper to investigate the measurement invariance issue in the construction industry.

This study aims to develop and empirically validate the concept of experience capability, which represents an organisation's ability to be adept at managing the customer experience. Organisations that build an experience capability develop an expertise in deploying a set of resources and routines to understand, evaluate and improve how they interact with customers across all the points of contact.

A rigorous process was employed to identify, operationally define, evaluate and validate six dimensions reflecting experience capability. The dimensions were developed and validated using relevant literature, expert interviews, item-sorting techniques, a pilot survey and two surveys, providing a degree of certainty that the intellectual insights are generalisable.

The experience capability concept is identified as comprising six dimensions that are informed by 27 measurement items. The six dimensions are employee training, employee empowerment, employee evaluation, experience performance management, cross-functional work and channel integration. The findings provide evidence suggesting that the multi-item measurement scale exhibits appropriate psychometric properties.

The empirically validated 27-item measurement scale provides practitioners with an approach to evaluate and improve their organisation's experience capability. It permits both longitudinal comparisons of individual organisations and competitive benchmarking both within and across industry sectors. The approach alerts managers to the critical operational areas that should be measured and provides a structured method to pursue competitive advantage through customer experience capability.

Developing valid and reliable measurement scales is an essential first step in effective theory-building. The paper proposes a theoretical foundation for the experience capability construct and validates a corresponding measurement scale. The scale was developed carefully to achieve the specificity required to undertake meaningful practitioner-centric assessment while maintaining relevance across sectorial contexts. The results complement existing customer-centric experience research by providing distinct intellectual insights from a practitioner perspective. The developed scale permits future intellectual investigation through capability comparisons both within and between companies in different industries/sectors.

This paper aims to develop and validate a scale measurement of trust in long-term relations, specifically in the maintenance phase, between buyers and sellers. Relying on a cognitive conception, existing scales do not measure the affective trust occurring in the maintenance stage of the relationship.

Three surveys were conducted with purchasing managers of enterprises in various business-to-business (B2B) sectors to build a bi-dimensional measurement scale of affective trust as a sentiment of security and affective attachment. For measurement scale development, established construction procedures were followed, including qualitative and quantitative surveys. The process can be summarized as: domain specification, generation of questionnaire items, empirical survey and iterative process of scale purification based on reliability assessment and validity checks.

The results indicate satisfactory psychometric properties of the new Affective Trust Scale (ATS). Furthermore, they demonstrate the scale’s measurement invariance across business sectors. The research confirms the importance of affective aspects of trust and supports the reliability and validity of the measure. Nomological validity assessment of the scale shows that sentiment of security-based trust impacts investment in business relationships.

The ATS developed and tested in the B2B French context needs to be evaluated taking into account several limitations. First, the specific context was a sample of buyers in France experiencing lasting relationships, suggesting that an extension of the study to other countries would be desirable. Also, the ATS needs to be further validated and confirmed in other contexts, for instance, within buyer–supplier relationship intensity.

The ATS can help firms to identify key parameters in buyer–seller relationships. It is important for the seller to collect information to determine the stage of the relationship before spending money on targeting customers, as they may not be ready to broaden the scope of their contract. The ATS can be very useful for companies to assess the state of the relationship and the strength of the bond in a timely manner and, therefore, anticipate the relational orientation. Segmentation based on relational phases requires tailoring to each form of trust strategies and hence the accurate identification of the relationship phase could help to better categorize and subcategorize customers with respect to the sentiment of security and affective attachment degrees. Furthermore, an understanding of the two dimensions is useful for key account managers to adjust relationship management toward specific actions (e.g. sentiment of security and/or affective attachment). The ATS could be very useful to guide managers in taking the right decision, by focusing both on sentiment of security and affective attachment dimensions of affective trust.

Affective trust is important to B2B managers, who frequently struggle to build and maintain close relationships with customers and suppliers. This paper adds insights into the complex but important construct of trust. The scale could be used for empirical studies of affective trust in B2B relationships. It may also help marketing managers develop better relationships with partners.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of soft science measurement of motivation under strict hard science criteria from observations of individual animals and to suggest the conditions under which an observation can be classified as a measurement.

The methodology starts from reconciling second-order cybernetics/radical constructivism (SOC/RC) understanding of the central role of the observer with physical measurements, which accepts the existence of a mind-independent reality. As a result of the reconciliation, parallels were identified between the SOC/RC experiences of as_is and as_if, on the one hand, and the measurement concepts of accuracy and resolution, on the other hand. The scales of physical measurement are defined by criteria of varying strictness, and the scales that meet the strict criterion of concatenation are generally considered hard science and lead to well-defined accuracy and precision. The similarity between SOC/RC and physical measurement suggests that if accuracy and precision can be computed from observations, then the observations can be classified as measurements in a strict hard science fashion; otherwise, the observations are just observations.

A nonlinear dynamic model of motivation is reintroduced as an example for reference in measurements of motivation. If there was an agreement on its use among observers (Ethologists), which in reality is not the case, then empirical data may be collected, and the averages and spreads of parameter estimations will define a reference for an animal species. Later, observers with their own data will calibrate with the reference model, so that new observers will have calculated values of accuracy and precision for their data.

Unlike hard science whose scales of measurement are practically unambiguous, measuring the purpose of behaviour of an animal has inherent ambiguity according to the reintroduced model. The ambiguity cannot be resolved from instantaneous readings. The necessary existence of ambiguity renders the criticism of hard science invalid, that of expecting to measure motivation with a static scale as if it were temperature.

Human observers can be treated as measuring devices of motivation from observing behaviour. Each observer can have characteristic accuracy/precision, or validity/reliability, calculated from empirical data.

This is an inductive, rather than deductive, study of individual animal behaviour; the author believes it is extensible to individual human behaviour and personality studies. However, group behaviour studies are beyond its scope.

The author believes that the suggestion of ambiguity of scales of animal motivation is original, and the suggested link between SOC/RC and a mainstream hard science is new.