Measurement in Marketing Research investigates latent variables in marketing, focusing on current paradigms as well as recently suggested alternative concepts. The book proposes a unified scientific definition of measurement that allows for testing the hypothesis of the real existence of a latent variable.Thomas Salzberger analyses current measurement approaches in terms of their compliance with the scientific requirements of measurement. He reaches the conclusion that the predominantly applied practices, to a varying extent, suffer from substantial shortcomings, and suggests an alternative framework of measurement based on the philosophy of Rasch modelling. In the Rasch model great importance is attached to the mathematical principles of measurements, which take precedence over 'flexibility' in terms of accommodating idiosyncrasies of the data. The Rasch model promises to narrow the gap between the quality of measurement in the natural sciences and in the social sciences.

The future of measurement in marketing is about to be set. This book aims to raise researchers' awareness of measurement issues and to contribute to a transfer of knowledge from psychometrics into marketing research. Marketing researchers and postgraduate students will find this book invaluable.