Response invalidity in empirical research: Causes, detection, and remedies

Research in behavioral operations management and related areas relies heavily on self‐report measures. The utility of such measures depends on the extent to which the responses are valid, meaning they correspond to the thoughts and beliefs of respondents with regard to the phenomena under study. Response validity is undermined when respondents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate responses to survey questions, an issue that has generated an array of methods for screening and evaluating survey data and dealing with dubious responses. This article uses the work of Abbey and Meloy (2017) as a point of departure to examine the causes, detection, and remedies of response invalidity. The article concludes with recommendations for future research that treats response validity and its dimensions as methods factors that should be formally incorporated into statistical models.