Seeking Guidance for my PhD work
Mehruk Hai
Dear Researchers and Scholars,
I'm working on my PhD and would appreciate your guidance on a methodological issue related to scale development and model assessment.
My study examines the relationship between an independent variable measured using a formative construct and a dependent variable for which no established scale exists in the literature. As part of my doctoral work, I am developing a new measurement instrument for the dependent variable.
So far, I have:
- Conducted an extensive literature review
- Performed thematic analysis
- Identified 7 major themes along with their respective sub-themes
Based on this, my dependent variable is conceptualized as a formative–formative hierarchical construct.
I seek guidance on the following:
1. Development of a formative–formative scale
- What is the recommended step-by-step procedure for developing such hierarchical formative constructs?
- Are there any key papers, methodological guides, or resources that specifically address formative–formative measurement models (especially in SEM/PLS-SEM context)?
- Any suggestions on item generation, validation, and assessment criteria would be highly valuable.
2. Assessing the relationship between variables
- I came across the argument in DeVellis (Scale Development: Theory and Applications, Chapter 7) that formative constructs often behave more like indices rather than traditional scales.
- Given this, is it still methodologically sound to test the relationship between my independent variable (formative) and dependent variable (formative–formative/index-like construct)?
- If yes, what would be the appropriate analytical approach (e.g., PLS-SEM, composite-based SEM, regression with indices, etc.)?
- How should validity and reliability be handled in such a case?
Any insights, recommended readings, or examples of published studies dealing with similar methodological designs would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your time and support.
Best regards,
Mehruk Hai
Research Scholar