Measurement and

Scaling
Measurement and Scaling
 Measurement is the foundation of any scientific
investigation.
 Everything we do begins with the measurement of
whatever it is we want to study
 Measurement is the assignment of numbers to
objects
Level of Measurement
There are four level of measurement scales
(or types of data)
 Nominal
 Ordinal
 Interval
 Ratio
Nominal Scale
 Nominal scales are adopted for non-quantitative
(containing no numerical implication) labelling
variables which are unique and different from one
another.
 Measurement scales, classifies individuals, companies,
products, brands or other entities into categories
where no order is implied. Indeed it is often referred
to as a categorical scale.

Ordinal Scale
 Ordinal scales involve the ranking of individuals,
attitudes or items along the continuum of the
characteristic being scaled.
 Ordinal scales tell us relative order, but give us no
information regarding differences between the
categories.
 Brand Preference for Mobile phone

Brand Rank
Nokia 4
Mi 2
Micromax 3
Samsung 1
Interval Scale
 An interval scale is also called a cardinal scale which is
the numerical labelling with the same difference
among the consecutive measurement units. With the
help of this scaling technique, researchers can obtain
a better comparison between the objects.
 This scale has the properties of the nominal and
ordinal scales, but here the magnitude between the
consecutive intervals are equal. Temperature is the
example that is usually given to illustrate an interval
scale.

 Example: Difference between 60° and 70° are

the same as the difference between 30° degrees
and 40°
Ratio scales
 The highest level of measurement is a ratio scale.
This has the properties of an interval scale
together with a fixed origin or zero point.
Examples of variables which are ratio scaled
include weights, lengths and times. Ratio scales
permit the researcher to compare both
differences in scores and the relative magnitude
of scores.
Scaling Techniques
The various types of scales used in Business
research fall into two broad categories:
 Comparative : In comparative scaling, the
respondent is asked to compare one brand or
product against another.
 Non comparative: no comparative scaling
respondents need only evaluate a single
product or brand. Their evaluation is
independent of the other product
Comparative Scale
For comparing two or more variables, a
comparative scale is used by the respondents.
Following are the different types of comparative
scaling techniques.

 Paired comparison Scaling

 Rank Order Scaling
 Constant Sum Scaling
Non-Comparative Scales
 A non-comparative scale is used to analyse the
performance of an individual product or object on
different parameters. Following are some of its
most common types.
 Continuous rating scales
 itemized rating scales
a) Likert
c) Semantic differential