Assessing the Development and Application of Scales in Marketing Research
(A2026-134204)

AUTHORS

Robin Frasch, University of Hamburg; Thomas Schreiner, University of New South Wales; Mark Heitmann, University of Hamburg

ABSTRACT

Marketing research relies heavily on validated measurement scales. Specifically, locating appropriate scales and understanding their psychometric properties remains fragmented and time-consuming. To address this challenge, we introduce the Marketing Scales Project, a new research infrastructure that digitizes, systematizes, and extends the foundational work of Gordon C. Bruner II. In this early stage, we have collected and processed more than 5,000 scales, extracting detailed metadata, item wording, validity information, and citation data using a tailored AI-based parser. This database provides, for the first time, a unified and richly documented overview of the measurement landscape in marketing. Building on this foundation, we will conduct a series of bibliometric, semantic, and psychometric analyses to study how constructs and measurement practices have evolved and to uncover the intellectual structure of marketing scales. As we continue to develop the platform and its AI-supported tools, we look forward to presenting and making the Marketing Scales Project accessible to the broader marketing community at EMAC.