Defining management accounting constructs: A methodological note on the risks of conceptual misspecification

This paper stresses the need for a sound conceptual specification of research constructs prior to fitting them to explanatory models. It emphasizes that in addressing the conceptual level of the predictive validity framework [Libby, R., Bloomfield, R., & Nelson, M. (2002). Experimental research in financial accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 27, 775–810], special attention must be paid to two issues: (1) the production of a specific agreed-upon meaning and domain for each construct of interest; and (2) the specification and conceptual justification of the nature and direction of the epistemic relationships between constructs, dimensions and indicators (i.e., reflective vs. formative models; latent vs. emergent models). The paper highlights the importance of both issues especially in the case of practice-defined variables, and it provides guidelines on how to address both aspects of conceptual specification. While the issues raised are pertinent to many research areas, the paper concentrates on the implications for management accounting and control systems (MACS) research, using interactive use of control systems [Simons, R. (1995a). Levers of control. Boston: Harvard Business School Press] to illustrate how researchers should go about specifying meaning and epistemic relationships in MACS research.     

A new measurement procedure for attitudinal research. Analysis of its psychometric and informational properties

Since measurement errors have strong effects in all relationships (statistical or otherwise) studied, there is an increasing interest in the data quality, which is the major justification for this research. This paper aims to present a new measurement procedure, the letter scale, which avoids many of the problems connected with the response modalities traditionally used in attitudinal research, especially the ordinal categorical scales. This paper analyzes the error composition of the scores obtained with this new measurement procedure. The validity of the procedure is also analyzed and the observed variance is assessed to determine which part of the observed variance is “valid”, which part is random error (attenuating relationships) and which is correlated error (magnifying relationships). Structural equation models will be used to provide estimates of the measurement quality: (i) Reliability, (ii) Construct validity, method effect and residual variance. In addition, this letter scale is evaluated under another different perspective, Information Theory measures are also used to assess the amount of information transmitted. The relative merits of this new measurement procedure as opposed to other common response modalities will be discussed in both cases.     

Does Having an Ethical Brand Matter? The Influence of Consumer Perceived Ethicality on Trust, Affect and Loyalty

The recent rise in ethical consumerism has seen increasing numbers of corporate brands project a socially responsible and ethical image. But does having a corporate brand that is perceived to be ethical have any influence on outcome variables of interest for its product brands? This study analyzes the relationship between perceived ethicality at a corporate level, and brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty at a product level. A theoretical framework with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested in order to answer the research question. Data have been collected for 45 product categories in the fast moving consumer goods sector using a panel of 4,027 Spanish consumers. The proposed relationships are tested using structural equations modeling. The results suggest there is a positive relationship between perceived ethicality of a brand and both brand trust and brand affect. Brand affect also positively influences brand trust. Further, brand trust and brand affect both show a positive relation with brand loyalty. The managerial and academic implications of the results are discussed.     

University entrepreneurship centres as service businesses

In recent years, many universities have created entrepreneurship centres which offer a set of services to students, educators and professionals in order to promote entrepreneurial attitudes. The first part of this work focuses on describing a university entrepreneurship programme as a service business. The second part summarises the results of the empirical study, based on the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) questionnaire administered to 106 students at the Technical University of Catalonia in Spain who attended the entrepreneurship courses offered by the Innova Programme entrepreneurship centre.     

Simple,Efficient and Distribution-free Approach to Interaction Effects in Complex Structural Equation Models

Structural equation models with mean structure and non-linear constraints are the most frequent choice for estimating interaction effects when measurement errors are present. This article proposes eliminating the mean structure and all the constraints but one, which leads to a more easily handled model that is more robust to non-normality and more general as it can accommodate endogenous interactions and thus indirect effects. Our approach is compared to other approaches found in the literature with a Monte Carlo simulation and is found to be equally efficient under normality and less biased under non-normality. An empirical illustration is included.     

Selection of Indicators for the Interaction Term in Structural Equation Models with Interaction

Kenny and Judd (1984, Psychological Bulletin 96: 201–210) suggested using structural equation models to model interaction effects since they allow correction for measurement error. They proposed using all possible products of the indicators of the two interacting variables as indicators for the interaction term. Jöreskog and Yang (1996, Advanced Structural Equation Modeling. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 57–88.) defended that this is not necessary; one product variable is sufficient to estimate the interaction effect. However, they did not specify which indicators should be chosen if there is more than one possibility. We prove that the optimal choice is to select the indicators with the highest reliabilities. But this is only true if certain assumptions hold. We go on to show that one can get very different results depending on the indicators chosen for the interaction term if the indicators are not congeneric which is often the case. These methodological arguments will be illustrated by a study of the purchasing or boycotting of certain products for environmental reasons.     

Tests of stability in attitude research

Some researchers suggest that panel data be used with simplex models in order to evaluate stability of opinions before drawing the conclusion that an attitude is detected. They have carried out studies showing that it is not always true that an attitude exists, mainly because the opinion is unstable. This paper proposes to continue this line of research, presenting both a new conceptualization of attitude stability and a way to evaluate it by using simplex models. The paper will show that when evaluating attitude stability, researchers' models must not only take into account the structure of the variances/covariances but also the structure of the means. The authors demonstrate that this new definition of change makes a difference in the conclusions with respect to the stability of opinions with respect to the role of women in society.