Resumen de Perceptions of fair treatment in financial services: : development, validation and application of a fairness measurement scale
James Devlin, Sanjit Kumar Roy, Harjit Singh Sekhon
Purpose - To derive, test and validate a comprehensive, inclusive measure of perceptions of fairness in consumers of financial services, as current attempts to measure fairness in a broad-based multidimensional manner are underdeveloped.
Design/methodology/approach - A quantitative approach where a large scale sample of the perceptions of financial services consumers is taken in three time periods. Subsequently, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis are employed to analyse our data Findings - Fairness comprises three distinct but related elements, namely procedural, interactional and distributive fairness, and further sub-dimensions are also apparent. Our measurement scale exhibits a high degree of validity and reliability and represents a robust measure of fairness perceptions.
Research limitations/implications - Previous conceptual suppositions as to the multidimensional nature of fairness are strongly supported. A comprehensive scale is provided for fellow researchers to utilise in other settings. The main limitation is that the measures were tested in a single context, although this is offset by the large scale of the pilot exercise and multiple waves of data collection.
Practical implications - Perceptions of fairness can be measured accurately and tracked, measures for sub-dimensions of fairness can be compared, and differences among sectors and demographic segments can be explored. Perceptions of fairness can be related to factors such as trust and purchase intentions in addition to other attitudinal measures.
Originality/value - The fairness measure developed, tested and validated here is the most comprehensive, multi-dimensional measure of fairness available that we know of. As such, it represents a valuable conceptual contribution to the assessment of perceptions of fairness.
