COMPARATIVE SCALE

1. Pair wise comparison scale Pairwise comparison generally refers to any process of comparing entities in pairs to judge which of each entity is preferred, or has a greater amount of some quantitative property. The method of pairwise comparison is used in the scientific study of preferences, attitudes, voting systems, social choice, public choice, and multiagent AI systems. In psychology literature, it is often referred to as paired comparison. EXAMPLE Q:1:- In each of the following pairs, which store do you think is better ? (Please check one online auction site within each pair) _________Amazon _________eBay _________PriceLine.com _________eBay or _________eBay or or or _________Yahoo! Auction _______eBay _________Ubid.com

Q:2: APPLE 9 ------- Extreme Preference 7--------Very Strong Pref 5--------Strong Preference 3--------Slight Pref 1------- Equal 3-------- Slight Pref 5--------Strong Preference 7--------Very Strong Pref 9 ------- Extreme Preference ORANGE

Q:3: Animal Fat versus vegetable oil Same------------------------------X---------Different Butter versus animal Fat Same-------------------X---------------------Different Vegetable oil versus butter Same------------------------------X---------Different

Q:4: -

This example matrix shows a personal choice amongst seven different fruit Total stars for each (A)Apple (O)Orange (M)Melon (K)Kiwi (B)Banana (P)Pear fruit over whole table (C) C C C C C C Cherries Cherries *** * ** * * * get 9 O M A B P Apples (A)Apple *** * ** * * get 2 M O B P Oranges (O)Orange * ** * * get 5 M B M Melons (M)Melon ** * ** get 6 B K Kiwis (K)Kiwi * ** get 2 P Bananas (B)Banana * get 4 Pears (P)Pear get 3

1. Arrange a matrix as show above, giving each item a unique one-letter abbreviation (e.g. O for Orange in the example). 2. Mark each cell in the matrix to indicate which fruit you prefer of the two items it represents. You could also show how strong each preference is as the example illustrates. For instance, in the example

C *** means: Cherries very much preferred B * means: Bananas slightly preferred

Q:5: - The mayor of Smallville is being chosen in an election using the Method of Pairwise Comparisons. The four candidates are Paul (the town barber), Rita (head of the town council), Sarah (Superintendent of Education), and Tim (former District Attorney). 500 registered voters cast their preference ballots. The results are summarized in the preference schedule below.

Place 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

130 P R S T

120 T R S P

100 T R P S

150 S R P T

2. Rank Order Scale A Rank Order scale gives the respondent a set of items and asks them to put the items in some form of order. The measure of 'order' can include such as preference, importance, liking, effectiveness and so on. The order is often a simple ordinal structure (A is higher than B). It can also be done by relative position (A scores 10 whilst B scores 6). EXAMPLE Q:1: - Please rank the following in order from 1- your favourite To 8 your least favourite. According to your opinion of their Quality as SEO Focussed Blogs. ____ SEOBook ____search Engine Land ____SEOmoz ____Search Engine watch ____SE round table ____Wolf-howl ____tropialSEO

_____Stuntdubl

Q:2: - Please rank the following in order of importance from 1 to 4 where 1 is important to you and 4 is least important to you Speed of service [ ] Ease of Parking [ ] Cleanliness [ ] Friendliness [ ]

Q:3: - Example: Please rank the following customer service foctors, from most to leost important to you, when interacting with our agency, 11= most important; 5 = least important) 1 2 3 4 5 Call wait time [] [] [] [] [] Call hold time [] [] [] [] [] Representatives customer service skills [] [] [] [] [] Representatives knowledge/technical skills [] [] [] [] [] Resolution of issue [] [] [] [] []

Q:4:-

3. Constant sum scaling Respondents are required to allocate a constant sum of units among a set of stimulus objects with respect to some criterion. Allocation of units reflects the importance attached to each attribute. EXAMPLESAllocate 100 points among the following1) Which features of a TV is importantColor quality Price Quality 25 45 30 100

2) Attribute important for SoapAttribute 1. Mildness 2. Lather 3. Fragrance Segment 1 40 10 50 100 Segment 2 20 60 20 100

3) Factor important while purchasing a watchDurability Price Appearance Guarantee 4)Attribute important for mobile Attribute 1. Brand 2. Price 3. Apps 4. Style Segment 1 25 10 45 10 Segment 2 25 55 30 10 30 20 35 15

5) Search engine depending upon how frequently you use itYahoo Google Bing Ask 13 60 10 17 100

4. Q Sort Scaling Q Methodology is a research method used in psychology and in social sciences to study people's "subjectivity"that is, their viewpoint. Q was developed by psychologist William Stephenson. It has been used both in clinical settings for assessing patients, as well as in research settings to examine how people think about a topic. General methodology developed to discriminate among relatively large number of objects quickly. It gathers data and processes the collected information; the subjects are assigned the task of sorting a number of statements by placing a specific number of statements in each sorting category; the emphases are on determining the relative ranking of stimuli by individuals and in deriving cluster of individuals who display similar preference ordering of stimuli. For example, respondents are given hundred attitude statements on individual cards and are asked to place them into eleven piles ranging from most highly agreed with to least highly agreed with. Each completed template is entered as data. A general statistical package such as SPSS or a dedicated Q package can be used. The program correlates each Q sort (i.e., a completed template) with each other Q sort to identify a small number of factors that can represent shared forms of understandings among participants. Various techniques of factor rotation and statistical procedures are used to safeguard factor reliability. The Q sorts of all participants who loaded significantly on a factor are merged to produce a single configuration, which serves as a factor array, or factor exemplar. A table of all factors and the ranking assigned to each statement in each factor is constructed to serve as a basis for factor interpretation. The example below (Table) is an extract from a table of ranking of statements for a study of therapists understandings of addiction

*(International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2009, 8(1) )

NON COMPARATIVE SCALE

1. Continuous Rating Scale: Respondents rate the objects by placing a mark at the appropriate position on a line that runs from one extreme of the criterion variable to the other. The form of the continuous scale may vary considerably. In this type of rating scale the respondents rate the object by placing a mark at the appropriate position on a line that runs from one extreme of the criterion variable to the other. Thus the respondents are not restricted to selecting from marks previously set by the researcher. One advantage of continuous rating scales is that they are easy to construct. However, scoring is cumbersome.

Example: i. What you feel about effectiveness of Kelloggs K challenge? Unfavourable----------------------------------------------------------------------favourable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 ii. How would you rate the reliance store? Unfavourable----------------------------------------------------------------------favourable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 How would you rate the services provided by Jaipuria institute of management in IDP? Unfavourable----------------------------------------------------------------------favourable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 How would you rate the working culture of Google for motivating employees? Unfavourable----------------------------------------------------------------------favourable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 How would you rate the facilities provided by Tata Nano? Unfavourable----------------------------------------------------------------------favourable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

iii.

iv.

v.

2. Itemized Rating Scales: Itemized rating scales are ordinal scales used to measure consumer attitudes such as attribute perceptions, product preferences, purchase intentions, and service satisfaction. The respondents are provided with a scale that has a number or brief description associated with each category. The categories are ordered in terms of scale position; and the respondents are required to select the specified category that best describes the object being rated. The commonly used itemized rating scales are: Likert scales Semantic differential scales Stapel scale

Likert scales: The Likert scale requires the respondents to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series of statements about the stimulus objects. The analysis can be conducted on an item-by-item basis (profile analysis), or a total (summated) score can be calculated. When arriving at a total score, the categories assigned to the negative statements by the respondents should be scored by reversing the scale.

Example: Strongly disagree quality 1 1 1 1 1 Disagree 2 2 2 2 2 Neither agree Agree nor disagree 3 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 Strongly agree 5 5 5 5 5

Sears sells high merchandise Sears has poor in-store service. Nordstroms has attractive prices Nordstroms is an attractive store The service at Nordstroms is slow

Semantic Differential Scale: The semantic differential is a seven-point rating scale with end points associated with bipolar labels that have semantic meaning. The negative adjective or phrase sometimes appears at the left side of the scale and sometimes at the right. This controls the tendency of some respondents, particularly those with very positive or very negative attitudes, to mark the right- or left-hand sides without reading the labels. Individual items on a semantic differential scale may be scored on either a -3 to +3 or a 1 to 7 scale. Example: i. Service is discourteous 1234567 Service is courteous ii. People in Lucknow are Modern 1234567 People in Lucknow are Old Fashion iii. Hours are inconvenient 1234567 Hours are convenient iv. Loan interest rates 1234567 Loan interest rates are high are low v. Aryans Foods are tasty 1234567 Aryans Foods are not tasty

Stapel scales: The Stapel scale is a unipolar rating scale with ten categories numbered from -5 to +5, without a neutral point (zero). This scale is usually presented vertically. The data obtained by using a Stapel scale can be analyzed in the same way as semantic differential data. Example: i. Service is Fast

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5

ii. iii. iv. v.

Food is Tasty -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 services of Royal caf -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 Quality of Attitude(Amways Product) -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 HP computers +5 +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 High quality -1 -2 -3 -4x -5 +4 +3 +2x +1 poor service -1 -2 -3 -4 -5