Measuring Abstract Constructs in Management and Organizational Research: The Case of Export Coordination

Abstract

Rossiter (2008) attempts to show that traditional measure development procedures are flawed. He illustrates his reasoning using measures of the export coordination construct (Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, British Journal of Management, 17 (2006), pp. 263–282), and ‘corrects’ these measures using the C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development. We explain the errors that Rossiter (2008) makes in his application of the C-OAR-SE procedure, and in the assumptions inherent in the C-OAR-SE procedure. We demonstrate that the ‘corrected’ measure that Rossiter (2008) develops using the C-OAR-SE procedure lacks validity. We conclude that the C-OAR-SE procedure needs more work if it is become a useful tool for researchers.