MULTIDIMENSIONAL

SCALING (MDS) and

CORRESPONDENCE
ANALYSIS (CA)
Rina Indiastuti - DMB UNPAD

REFERENCES
Hair. Multivariate Data Analysis
L.J. Stalans (1998) Multi-dimensional

scaling, In Reading and Understanding

Multivariate Statistics, edited by L.Grimm
and P.Arnold.
Dillon & Goldstein. Multivariate Analysis
Methods and Application.

WHAT IS MDS
As a perceptual mapping (spatial map) of objects

(firms, products, services, images, ideas, issues

and other)
MDS is a mathematical dimension reduction that
maps the distances between observations (objects)
in a high dimension space into a lower dimension
space (two-three dimensional map).
Method: transform respondentsperceptions or
judgements of similarity or preference or both into
distance represented in multidimensional space.
Scale of measurement: metric or non metric

WHAT IS MDS
Data : approximate the distances between pairs of the

objects. The data which are called similarities,

dissimilarities, preference, distances, or proximities.
Basis of evaluation: similarity or preference
Similarities data: most similar most dissimilar or pair
comparison
Preference: direct ranking, paired comparisons, preference
scales
Analysis: aggregate or disaggregate.
Form of disaggregate analysis: individual difference
scaling
The space is a two- or three dimensional Euclidean space

WHAT IS MDS
Euclidean distance to

model dissimilarity,
position of point i on
dimension a:
Metric MDS: the
similarities had to be
quantitative
Non metric MDS: data
is ordinal

dij

(x

ia

x ja )

How MDS works?

MDS work is to track the movement of points in
the space from the initial configuration to the
final solution
Premise: derived distances in the space should
match the original proximities
distances = dij
original proximities = sij
Large similarity corresponds to small distance

Distance

d12 a 2 b 2

Example
Data: consumers perceptions of six candy bars.

Rate the similarity candy A and B on a 10-point

scale
First, creating a set of 15 unique pairs of six candy
(6.5/2=15)
Rank the following 15 pairs: rank of 1 is most
similar and a rank of 15 indicates the pair that is
least alike. (See Table 10.1)
Product A is more similar to B than C
Perceptual map using SPSS is on Figure 10.2

One- and two-Dimensional perpetual maps

AB

AC

Most similar pair

least similar pair

Derived Stimulus Configuration

Euclidean distance model
candy a
candy b

1.0
.5

candy f
candy e
candy d

0.0

D im e n sio n 2

-.5
-1.0
-1.5
candy c
-2.0
-2.5

-2.0

Dimension 1

-1.5

-1.0

-.5

0.0

.5

1.0

1.5

Research Design of MDS

Decompositional method associated with MDS
Data: similarities or preferences
Analysis : aggregate or disaggregate
Nonmetric or metric methods. Original MDS were truly
non metric, required only non metric input, e.g: rankordering pairs (candies example). MDS produce metric
output.
Metric method assume that input as well as output is
metric. Input data : interval or ratio.
Determining an objects position (Perceptual map)
Validation approach: split-or multi sample comparison

Procedures
1. Array the objects along the straight line
2. Make a proximity values (amount of similarity or

difference between pairs of objects) as data.

pairs

n(n 1)
2

3. Measure a lack of fit or called stress (difference between

fitted distances and the original proximity values). Find the

smaller stress. Stress measure determines a models
goodness of fit and the appropriate number of dimensions
4. Stress always improve with increased dimensions.
5. The process is repeated until overall fit (error minimum)

Stress Index

Stress

(d ij dij ) 2
( d ij d ) 2

d average dis tan ce on map

dij
derived dis tan ce from similar data
d ij original dis tan ce provided by respondent

Interpretation of the stress (Kruskal)

Stress
20%
10%
5%
2.5%
0%

Goodness of fit
poor
fair
good
excellent
perfect

APLICATION
MDS helps the researchers to identify key

dimensions underlying
respondentsevaluations of objects.
E.g:
identify key dimensions underlying
customer evaluations of products, services
or companies.
Comparison dimensions of objects

Aggregate Analysis
Fewer perceptual maps
Aggregations may take place either before

of after scaling the subjectsdata. Before

scaling: find the average evaluations for all
respondents and obtain a single solution for
the group of respondents as a whole. To
identify groups may use cluster analysis.

EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH TOPIC

Analysis of hotel brands, see: article of

Chekitan
Market segmentation
Competitive market structure of certain
product
The perceptions of individual firms about
bank products, see: article of
Athanassopoulus.

Selecting Dimensionality of the

Perceptual Map
The hidden structure of similarity

judgements
Distance in a spatial plot is an analogy for
the perceived relatedness of items
Spatial plot called a configurations
Dimensions and co-ordinates

TYPES
Metric scaling, problem of data restrictions
Non metric scaling, most common, assumes data

at ordinal level. Therefore concerned with relative

rather than absolute similarity
Classical or unweighted procedures assume that
each subject applies equal weight to the ratings,
can use aggregate grid
Individual differences scaling; compare and
contrast subject groups

Interpreting MDS solution

Subjective approach: look at plots and

determine which things go together

Fruit example; similarity of fruits using
same quadrant or dimension.
Experimenter bias a problem in subjective
techniques
Statistical methods; stress index and
regression

Stress measure for validating an MDS

solution
Have to decide on number of dimensions ie 2 or 3.

One measure is the stress index 0-1; small stress

values 0-0.15 indicate good fit.
Can compare different solutions by plotting the
stress index against number of dimensions
Lower values of stress measure are better MDS
solutions valid.
Kruskal and Wallis rules of thumb.

Method of Kruskal Nonmetric

There is a given set of objects
For every two objects (i and j) some measure of

f(sij) is obtained. These measures may be

correlations, similarities, associations, distances,
etc. If sijis obtained, they are usually converted to
theoretical distances (dij) by substracting from a
constant.
A number of dimensions are selected
MDS searches for a replotting of the n objects.

Calculation of similarities
See file similarities
Suppose five individuals possess the following characteristics

Individual 1
Individual 2
Individual 3
Individual 4
Individual 5

height
68 in
73 in
67 9n
64 in
76 in

Weight
140 lb
185
165
120
210

define six binary variables X1, . X6

Eye color
green
brown
blue
brown
brown

Hair color
blond
brown
blond
brown
brown

HandednessGender
right
female
right
male
right
male
right
female
left
male

Comparing MDS, Factor, and Cluster analysis

Factor analysis: grouping variables into variates

that represent underlying dimensions in the

original set of variables. Variables that highly
correlate are grouped together
Cluster analysis: grouping objects according to
their profile on a set of variables (the cluster
variate) in which objects in close proximity to
each other are grouped together

Corespondence analysis (CA)

As a compositional technique which the

perceptual map is based on the association

between objects and a set of descriptive
characteristics or attributes specified by the
researcher.
Another compositional techniques are factor
and discriminant analysis

Example of CA
Table 9-2, Table 9-3, Figure 9-11
Table 9-9, 9-10, Figure 9-17

Advantages and limitations

CA is descriptive technique (exploratory

research) and not at all appropriate for

hypothesis testing
CA is a valuable analytical tool for non
metric data
Dimension can be named based on the
decomposition of inertia measures
(explained variation) across a dimension