Positive and Negative Perceptions of Residents Toward Tourism Development: Formative or Reflective

Abstract

This paper investigates whether residents’ positive and negative perceptions of tourism development, in the Asian context, are reflective or formative in nature. This assessment assumes positive perceptions (PP) and negative perceptions (NP) as both unidimensional and multidimensional constructs inclusive of economic, social, cultural, and environmental components. Data for this study was collected from residents of the Lenggong World Heritage Site in Malaysia and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), confirmatory tetrad analysis (CTA), and other recently developed fit models, such as geodesic discrepancy (d_G), unweighted least squares discrepancy (d_ULS), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). The results confirm the formative nature of PP and NP. In addition, the findings indicate that the PP and NP measurement model is best conceptualized as a reflective-formative second-order construct. This study makes a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to the resident perception literature, and the quantitative research in tourism. Future quantitative researches in resident perception field should take into consideration the formative nature NP and PP, when the research framework are conceptualized.