ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of validity and validation activities related to: scale development (construct), manipulation and confound checks (internal), and the robustness of empirical findings (external). It highlights themes about validity and validation efforts associated with research paths and research criteria in editorials and commentaries in leading journals. The validity network schema (VNS) framework provides a foundation to explain the dominant hypothetical–deductive model in consumer behavior research, alternative research paths, and a link between the meanings of validity with the stages of research. The chapter describes trade-offs among conflicting goals within the conceptual, methodological, and substantive domains. The chapter describes the VNS framework can serve as a guide for researchers by making salient the choices among competing values that motivate their research. Researchers’ value judgments affect their research choices, either explicitly or implicitly, and the VNS highlights the choices among conflicting desiderata in each research domain.