Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Formative Versus Reflective Measurement: Comment On Marakas, Johnson, And Clay (2007), Andrew M. Hardin, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, Mark A. Fuller

Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology Faculty Publications

In a recent issue of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Marakas, Johnson, and Clay (2007) presented an interesting and important discussion on formative versus reflective measurement, specifically related to the measurement of the computer self-efficacy (CSE) construct. However, we believe their recommendation to measure CSE constructs using formative indicators merits additional dialogue before being adopted by researchers. In the current study we discuss why the substantive theory underlying the CSE construct suggests that it is best measured using reflective indicators. We then provide empirical evidence demonstrating how the misspecification of existing CSE measures as formative can result …