The effect of nonlinear transformations on a Likert scale

Measuring User-Perceived Characteristics for Banking Services: Proposing a Methodology

With the continuous technological enhancement of banking services, customers can avail of better, more secure services which present improved opportunities and convenience. Of the many methods available to perform banking operations, customers commonly use traditional banking, online banking, and mobile banking. Each of these existing methods has advantages and limitations that affect customer experience, trust, satisfaction, and continued intention to use such services. In this study, an attempt was made to develop and fit a model to evaluate and measure the effect of perceived characteristics on banking services. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 91 participants in Korea to investigate their experiences in the three types of services: offline banking (traditional banking), online banking, and automated teller machines (ATM). The factor design for evaluating the user experience through the perceived characteristics of the banking system was performed by conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The proposed model exhibited validity and reliability to evaluate the user experience in the banking system. The results obtained can help banking specialists and professionals increase the level of customers’ trust, loyalty, and intention to use their services.

The Measurement of Health-Related Quality of Life of Girls with Mild to Moderate Idiopathic Scoliosis-Comparison of ISYQOL versus SRS-22 Questionnaire

This study aimed to compare the Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life Questionnaire (ISYQOL-PL) versus the Scoliosis Research Society-22 (SRS-22) questionnaire scores evaluating the validity of the concurrent and known-groups. Eighty-one girls (mean age 13.5 ± 1.8 years) with idiopathic scoliosis (IS) with a mean Cobb angle of 31.0 (±10.0) degrees were examined, all treated with a corrective TLSO brace for an average duration of 2.6 (±1.9) years. The patients’ scores were compared as follows: (1) age: ≤13 years vs. >13 years); (2) scoliosis severity: mild (Cobb angle 10–30°) vs. moderate (Cobb angle > 30°); (3) single curve pattern vs. double curve pattern. Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the strength of the association between ISYQOL-PL and SRS-22 scores. t-tests were applied to assess if the ISYQOL-PL measure and SRS-22 total score were significantly different in the different groups of patients. The concurrent validity analysis showed a moderate correlation (Lin p_ccc = 0.47). The ISYQOL-PL showed a significantly better quality of life in mild than moderate scoliosis. The severity of scoliosis but not the age or the curve pattern demonstrated a direct statistically significant effect on patients’ quality of life only when evaluated using the ISYQOL-PL.

Optimism Bias during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Romania and Italy

Given the importance of perceived susceptibility to a disease in adopting preventive behaviors, and the negative impact of optimism bias on prevention, this paper aimed to explore to what extent comparative optimism bias (understood as the tendency to assess a lower probability for oneself to experience negative health events compared to others) is present in the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic, in two countries with different profiles in terms of the spread of the disease: Italy and Romania. After identifying optimism bias in both countries, we tested whether it depends on respondents’ characteristics like gender, age, education, health status and whether or not they have the opportunity to work from home. We surveyed 1126 Romanians and 742 Italians, and found that optimism bias depends on self-reported health status, and that optimism bias increases with age. Inconclusive evidences were found regarding gender and education level, as well as the option to work from home.

Capturing the Four-Phase Team Adaptation Process With Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)

Abstract. As a response to the lack of quantitative and reliable measures of the team adaptation process, the aim of the present study was to develop and validate an instrument for assessing the four phases of the team adaptation process as described by Rosen and colleagues (2011) . Two trained raters and two subject matter expert groups contributed to the development of four behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) that span across the spectrum of team processes involved in each team adaptation phase. To validate the four BARS, two different trained raters assessed independently the team adaptation phases of 66 four-person teams. The validation study provided empirical support for the BARS’ psychometric adequacy. The BARS measures overcame the common middle anchor problem, showed sensitivity in differentiating between teams and between the four phases, showed evidence for acceptable reliability, construct, and criterion validity, and supported the theoretical team adaptation process assumptions. The study contributes to research and praxis by enabling the direct assessment of the overall team adaptation process, thereby facilitating our understanding of this complex phenomenon. This allows the identification of behavioral strengths and weaknesses for targeted team development and comprehensive team adaptation studies.

Ambidexterity in External Knowledge Search Strategies and Innovation Performance: Mediating Role of Balanced Innovation and Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity

The importance of external knowledge acquisition for innovation by firms is well established. In particular, there has been an increasing focus on the two distinct modes of firms’ external search strategies, which have a differential effect on their learning and innovation: search breadth and depth. By applying organizational ambidexterity lens, we hypothesize that pursuing high levels of both external search strategies is beneficial to achieve a balance between exploitative and explorative innovation, which, in turn, has a positive impact on the firm’s innovation performance. We also hypothesize that, even among the firms that maintain high levels of both search strategies, firms with higher absorptive capacity better achieve a balance between both modes of innovation, thereby producing higher performance. The findings on a multi-industry sample of Koran manufacturing firms confirm our hypotheses and imply that it is essential for firms to develop capabilities for different modes of external search activities in conjunction with internal absorptive capacity for superior innovation performance.

Factors influencing subspecialty choice among medical students: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

To characterise the contributing factors that affect medical students' subspecialty choice and to estimate the extent of influence of individual factors on the students' decision-making process.

DESIGN

Systematic review and meta-analysis.

METHODS

A systematic search of the Cochrane Library, ERIC, Web of Science, CNKI and PubMed databases was conducted for studies published between January 1977 and June 2018. Information concerning study characteristics, influential factors and the extent of their influence (EOI) was extracted independently by two trained investigators. EOI is the percentage level that describes how much each of the factors influenced students' choice of subspecialty. The recruited medical students include students in medical school, internship, residency training and fellowship, who are about to or have just made a specialty choice. The estimates were pooled using a random-effects meta-analysis model due to the between-study heterogeneity.

RESULTS

Data were extracted from 75 studies (882 209 individuals). Overall, the factors influencing medical students' choice of subspecialty training mainly included academic interests (75.29%), competencies (55.15%), controllable lifestyles or flexible work schedules (53.00%), patient service orientation (50.04%), medical teachers or mentors (46.93%), career opportunities (44.00%), workload or working hours (37.99%), income (34.70%), length of training (32.30%), prestige (31.17%), advice from others (28.24%) and student debt (15.33%), with significant between-study heterogeneity (p<0.0001). Subgroup analyses revealed that the EOI of academic interests was higher in developed countries than that in developing countries (79.66% [95% CI 70.73% to 86.39%] vs 60.41% [95% CI 43.44% to 75.19%]; Q=3.51, p=0.02). The EOI value of prestige was lower in developed countries than that in developing countries (23.96% [95% CI 19.20% to 29.47%] vs 47.65% [95% CI 34.41% to 61.24%]; Q=4.71, p=0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review and meta-analysis provided a quantitative evaluation of the top 12 influencing factors associated with medical students' choice of subspecialty. Our findings provide the basis for the development of specific, effective strategies to optimise the distribution of physicians among different departments by modifying these influencing factors.

Development and Validation of ICT Self-Efficacy Scale: Exploring the Relationship with Cyberbullying and Victimization

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the ICT Self-Efficacy Scale and the association of cyberbullying and victimization with ICT self-efficacy. Sample 1 (436 university students) was used to identify the factor structure of the Scale, and sample 2 (1115 university students) provided the data to confirm the factor structure (CFA), and to compute the internal consistency reliability, and convergent validity of the scale. Findings demonstrate that the new scale is a reliable and valid domain-specific measure to assess ICT Self-Efficacy for university students. Suggestions for further research with the scale are provided.

Procedural Skills of the Entrustable Professional Activities: Are Graduating US Medical Students Prepared to Perform Procedures in Residency?

PURPOSE

Competency-based medical education has been successfully instituted in graduate medical education through the development of Milestones. Consequently, the Association of American Medical Colleges implemented the core entrustable professional activities initiative to complement this framework in undergraduate medical education. We sought to determine its efficacy by examining the experiences and confidence of recent medical school graduates with general procedural skills (entrustable professional activities 12).

METHOD

We administered an electronic survey to the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital intern class assessing their experiences with learning and evaluation as well as their confidence with procedural skills training during medical school. Simple linear regression was used to compare respondent confidence and the presence of formal evaluation in medical school.

RESULTS

We received 28 complete responses, resulting in a 33% response rate, whereas most respondents indicated that basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation, bag/mask ventilation, and universal precautions were important to and evaluated by their medical school, this emphasis was not present for venipuncture, intravenous catheter placement, and arterial puncture. Mean summed scores of confidence for each skill indicated a statistically significant effect between confidence and evaluation of universal precaution skills.

CONCLUSIONS

More advanced procedural skills are not considered as important for graduating medical students and are less likely to be taught and formally evaluated before graduation. Formal evaluation of some procedural skills is associated with increased confidence of the learner.

Community-Based Long-Term Care Services

Objective: This study examines the relationship between caregivers’ perception of community-based long-term care (CBLTC) services and the service use. Method: We used first two waves of the longitudinal data set of 1,416 dyads of care recipients and their caregivers in Singapore. Four perceived attributes of LTC services—service quality, convenience, social connectedness, and affordability—were measured on a 5-point scale. Results: Among the four perceived attributes, perceived affordability was significantly associated with future utilization for all types of CBLTC services. Perceived service quality and convenience was significantly associated with center-based LTC services use. Discussion: Caregivers are critically involved in the decision of using CBLTC services, and their perception of service characteristics is significantly associated with the uptake of CBLTC services. It is important to incorporate both care recipients’ and caregivers’ needs and preferences when designing and promoting integrated health care delivery models.

Occupant stimulus response workplace productivity and the vexed question of measurement

Purpose

The purpose of this paper to develop a better understanding of the behavioural challenges in workplace performance evaluation and how the issues raised regarding validity and reliability of Likert scales could be addressed in future occupant surveys.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of the literature was conducted to identify some of the more important issues in occupant evaluations of built environment performance. Disparate fields of research were particularly given the changing nature of the workplace and work itself. The appropriateness of the Likert scale was then examined in some depth, with evaluation data presented by this method analysed to gauge the extent of error in reporting self‐assessed or perceived workplace productivity.

Findings

The review points to significant challenges in obtaining valid and reliable information in occupant self‐evaluations of workplace performance using linear Likert scales. When the occupant rating is negative, arithmetic means were found to be significantly lower than geometric means. The converse was found to be true for positive ratings. Magnitude estimation using a free modulus approach has been shown to be potentially free of bias and scale limitations

Research limitations/implications

The survey data available for analysis were limited, but the implications of the findings for the credibility of workplace performance evaluation are significant given the widespread use of linear Likert scales. Researchers are encouraged to pursue the questions raised and test the propositions further.

Practical implications

With modern work becoming more complex, information rich, mobile and team oriented, more sophisticated occupant performance evaluation tools and methods are needed to replace simplistic self‐assessment questionnaires.

Originality/value

This paper addresses the paucity of research into the validity and reliability of self‐assessed measures for workplace productivity. It integrates findings from disparate fields including aviation and cognitive functioning. It presents a stronger behavioural emphasis in evaluation, while encouraging the development of more effective measurement methods.