TY - JOUR
T1 - Rating versus ranking
T2 - What is the best way to reduce response and language bias in cross-national research?
AU - Harzing, Anne Wil
AU - Baldueza, Joyce
AU - Barner-Rasmussen, Wilhelm
AU - Barzantny, Cordula
AU - Canabal, Anne
AU - Davila, Anabella
AU - Espejo, Alvaro
AU - Ferreira, Rita
AU - Giroud, Axele
AU - Koester, Kathrin
AU - Liang, Yung Kuei
AU - Mockaitis, Audra
AU - Morley, Michael J.
AU - Myloni, Barbara
AU - Odusanya, Joseph O.T.
AU - O'Sullivan, Sharon Leiba
AU - Palaniappan, Ananda Kumar
AU - Prochno, Paulo
AU - Choudhury, Srabani Roy
AU - Saka-Helmhout, Ayse
AU - Siengthai, Sununta
AU - Viswat, Linda
AU - Soydas, Ayda Uzuncarsili
AU - Zander, Lena
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported under Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project DP0555977). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council.
PY - 2009/8
Y1 - 2009/8
N2 - We propose solutions to two recurring problems in cross-national research: response style differences and language bias. In order to do so, we conduct a methodological comparison of two different response formats-rating and ranking. For rating, we assess the effect of changing the commonly used 5-point Likert scales to 7-point Likert scales. For ranking, we evaluate the validity of presenting respondents with short scenarios for which they need to rank their top 3 solutions. Our results - based on two studies of 1965 undergraduate and 1714 MBA students in 16 different countries - confirm our hypotheses that both solutions reduce response and language bias, but show that ranking generally is a superior solution. These findings allow researchers to have greater confidence in the validity of cross-national differences if these response formats are used, instead of the more traditional 5-point Likert scales. In addition, our findings have several practical implications for multinational corporations, relating to issues such as selection interviews, performance appraisals, and cross-cultural training.
AB - We propose solutions to two recurring problems in cross-national research: response style differences and language bias. In order to do so, we conduct a methodological comparison of two different response formats-rating and ranking. For rating, we assess the effect of changing the commonly used 5-point Likert scales to 7-point Likert scales. For ranking, we evaluate the validity of presenting respondents with short scenarios for which they need to rank their top 3 solutions. Our results - based on two studies of 1965 undergraduate and 1714 MBA students in 16 different countries - confirm our hypotheses that both solutions reduce response and language bias, but show that ranking generally is a superior solution. These findings allow researchers to have greater confidence in the validity of cross-national differences if these response formats are used, instead of the more traditional 5-point Likert scales. In addition, our findings have several practical implications for multinational corporations, relating to issues such as selection interviews, performance appraisals, and cross-cultural training.
KW - Cross-national research
KW - Language bias
KW - Research methods
KW - Response style differences
KW - Survey research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67349204783&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2009.03.001
DO - 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2009.03.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67349204783
SN - 0969-5931
VL - 18
SP - 417
EP - 432
JO - International Business Review
JF - International Business Review
IS - 4
ER -