Metrically adjusted questionnaires can provide more information for scientists- an example from the tourism

Area of Science:

• Research Methodology
• Psychometrics
• Statistical Analysis

Background:

• Many research questionnaires lack inherent metric characteristics, limiting their scientific application.
• Traditional univariate statistical methods may not fully capture the complexity of data from such questionnaires.
• Improving metric properties is key to enhancing the scientific rigor of readily available survey instruments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore methods for improving the scientific usability of questionnaires lacking metric characteristics (handy questionnaires).
• To demonstrate the application of multivariate statistical procedures to data from adapted handy questionnaires.
• To present strategies for enhancing the metric properties of handy questionnaires for more robust data analysis.

Main Methods:

• Developing strategies to design measurement instruments from parts of existing handy questionnaires.
• Implementing metrical adaptation of handy questionnaires either a priori (before data collection) or a posteriori (after data collection).
• Utilizing multivariate statistical methods to analyze data from questionnaires with improved metric characteristics.

Main Results:

• The study outlines two primary strategies for the metrical adaptation of handy questionnaires.
• These strategies enable the application of more sophisticated multivariate statistical analyses.
• Improved metric characteristics enhance the scientific validity and utility of previously non-metric questionnaires.

Conclusions:

• Handy questionnaires can be adapted to possess improved metric characteristics, increasing their scientific value.
• Metrical adaptation, through a priori or a posteriori strategies, facilitates the use of powerful multivariate statistical techniques.
• This research provides a framework for enhancing research methodology by leveraging and improving existing, accessible data collection tools.