TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparing reflective and formative measures
T2 - New insights from relevant simulations
AU - Chang, Woojung
AU - Franke, George R.
AU - Lee, Nick
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - Previous simulations comparing formative and reflective models specify formative population models as the only correct model for a given construct, and compare them with various mis-specified reflective models. However, this approach does not generalize to situations where both reflective and formative specifications can work well to assess constructs. To address this limitation, this study presents simulations in which both formative and reflective specifications fit the underlying population data equally well. The results show that reflective specifications generate less biased and more powerful results than formative specifications, and make a strong case for considering standardized rather than unstandardized coefficients for both specifications. Therefore, conceptual and empirical consequences of using reflective models for constructs that could also be modeled as formative are less dire than past research has suggested.
AB - Previous simulations comparing formative and reflective models specify formative population models as the only correct model for a given construct, and compare them with various mis-specified reflective models. However, this approach does not generalize to situations where both reflective and formative specifications can work well to assess constructs. To address this limitation, this study presents simulations in which both formative and reflective specifications fit the underlying population data equally well. The results show that reflective specifications generate less biased and more powerful results than formative specifications, and make a strong case for considering standardized rather than unstandardized coefficients for both specifications. Therefore, conceptual and empirical consequences of using reflective models for constructs that could also be modeled as formative are less dire than past research has suggested.
KW - Construct specification
KW - Formative measurement
KW - Monte Carlo simulation
KW - Reflective measurement
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961780855&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84961780855
SN - 0148-2963
VL - 69
SP - 3177
EP - 3185
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
IS - 8
ER -