Response Pattern Analysis: Assuring Data Integrity in Extreme Research Settings

Keywords

intermediary bias, faked data, Response Pattern Analysis (RPA)

Abstract

Research summary: Strategy scholars increasingly conduct research in nontraditional contexts. Such efforts often require the assistance of third-party intermediaries who understand local culture, norms, and language. This reliance on intermediation in primary or secondary data collection can elicit agency breakdowns that call into question the reliability, analyzability, and interpretability of responses. Herein, we investigate the causes and consequences of intermediary bias in the form of faked data and we offer Response Pattern Analysis as a statistical solution for identifying and removing such problematic data. By explicating the effect, illustrating how we detected it, and performing a controlled field experiment in a developing country to test the effectiveness of our methodological solution, we encourage researchers to continue to seek data and build theory from unique and understudied settings.

Managerial summary: Any form of survey research contains the risk of interviewers faking data. This risk is particularly difficult to mitigate in Base-of-Pyramid or developing country contexts where researchers have to rely on intermediaries and forms of control are limited. We provide a statistical technique to identify a faking interviewer's ex post data collection, and remove the associated data prior to analysis. Using a field experiment where we instruct interviewers to fake the data, we demonstrate that the algorithm we employ achieves a 90 percent accuracy in terms of differentiating faking from nonfaking interviewers.

Original Publication Citation

"Christensen, L. J., Newman, A., Herrick, H., & Godfrey, P. (2020). Separate but not equal: Toward a nomological net for migrant entrepreneurship. Journal of International Business Policy, 3(1): 1-22."

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2020

Publisher

Journal of International Business

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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