Scale adaptation of MIS measures and their implications on MIS scholarship
authors
keywords
- Scale development scale adaptation cascading adaptation mixology trust scales
document type
COMMabstract
Scale adaptation refers to the process of changing something about a scale, such as: alter item wording, modify the target referent, revisit the type and number of anchor points, or modify the size of a scale. Scale adaptation has been a widespread practice in Management Information Systems (MIS) research since its very early days and is especially prevalent in MIS research due to the need to maintain a close alignment between a construct’s definition, its measurement, and the rapidly evolving contemporary Information Technology or behavioural contexts. In this paper, we challenge the established methodological assumption that scale adaptation is a harmless practice that ultimately leads to the betterment of existing scales. We explore the practices of scale adaptation in the MIS discipline, looking a the Trust scales, we contribute to the conceptualization of these practices and we provide some recommendations regarding the identified ones.
