An article on the equivalence failures in multicultural comparative research co-authored by Professor Emeritus Earl Honeycutt was named the 2013 Best Article.
The abstract reads:
An experiment using a probability sample of 263 U.S. consumers was conducted to document the psychometric effects of translation error on a semantic differential scale. The results demonstrate that data distributions and response styles are significantly altered as a result of mistranslation (inequivalence). Unexpectedly, results show attenuation of equivalent items when inequivalent items are present in a scale. This threatens the validity and reliability of cross-cultural scales that suffer equivalence failure. The authors recommend that simple nonparametric diagnostics be employed to detect translation/back-translation errors and that an iterative process of cross-cultural research be adopted when translation inequivalence is detected. Implications for researchers and practitioners are offered, as well as a discussion of limitations of the study.
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Honeycutt was a professor of marketing at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ from 2002-2012. During his time at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ, he served as the first director of the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, received ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’s Distinguished Scholar Award and was named the first Martha and Spencer Love Term Professor in 2011.