Development of a scale for the selection criteria of wedding planners

Abstract

Identifying the selection criteria of wedding planners, who are the main human resource that contribute to the overall satisfaction level of a wedding’s preparation, can produce important data for the wedding industry as it faces a transition period. To develop a scale for wedding planner selection criteria, preliminary items were prepared based on in-depth interviews with an experienced wedding planner group and a comprehensive review of previous studies, such as studies on selection criteria in the wedding industry and service work similar to wedding planners and wedding planner selection criteria. The preliminary items were tested for content validity using a focus group interview, comprising people in the wedding industry, and were refined accordingly. Then, the definitive quantitative questionnaire items were developed after conducting a preliminary survey. The main survey for this study was conducted using the responses of 295 consumers taking an Internet questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, and confirmatory factor analysis were adopted to develop the scale, which was tested for convergent validity and discriminant validity. This study is academically significant in that it developed a selection criteria scale tailored to wedding planners to address an area that has not been covered in previous studies. It is recommended that future studies conduct empirical analyses using the selection criteria developed in this study to compare influential variables that could affect behavior intention.