Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

choice of using reflective or formative second order factor models (e.g., Bennett and Ali-choudhury 2009).However, in reality, most work uses standard reflective first order models as indicated in Figure 1.Jarvis et al. (2003) discuss the possibility of formative second order factors, yet few have actually explored itempirically. In fact, although a viable alternative to the traditional reflective second order factor model, a formativesecond order model has its own share of problems (Howell, Breivik, and Wilcox 2007). For example, formativemeasurement uses conceptions of constructs, measures, and causality that are difficult to defend, the presumedviability of formative measurement is a fallacy, and the objectives of formative measurement may also be achievedusing alternative models with reflective measures‖(Edwards 2011). Interestingly, the Schmid-Leiman Factor Structure (SLS) may offer a better solution in many cases(Wolff and Preising 2005). Hence, this paper tries to:a) Empirically compare and contrast reflective vs. formative second order models.b) Demonstrate the use of the SLS approach empirically as a viable alternative to the formative second order modelstructure.Specifically, we compare reflective vs. formative second order factor models vs. Schmid-Leiman Factor Structure with data from a mall survey in India that tested the impact of store environment on impulsebuying.MODEL DEVELOPMENTModel 1 - Reflective Second Order Factor ModelIn line with Baker et al. (2002), we define store environment as consisting of ambient (e.g. lighting, scent andmusic), design (layout, assortment) and social factors (presence and effectiveness of salespersons). Thus, storeenvironment is a second order factor.Drawing upon extant research in psychology and retailing, we came up with a model.Figure 2 offers the standard reflective second order factor model that is the ―default‖ option where the first orderfactors, social, ambient and design factors are reflective of the second order factor, store environment.