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The concept of trust and commitment has been a feature of the relationship marketing literature for some considerable time. Consequently, a raft of previous studies have been completed and a number of existing questions have been published on this topic. After an extensive literature review, existing validated scaled questions from 30 different studies were found, all of which related to trust, commitment and their antecedents. Therefore, the challenge for this study is how to select the most suitable questions out of this large pool of existing questions rather than how to create a new set of questions. In order to eliminate the least relevant questions and thus be able to select the most appropriate questions for the study, four phases of questionnaire development were conducted. These involve justification of the questions, reviewing the general content of each study, eliminating irrelevant questions, eliminating questions that were identical or almost identical, and finally eliminating some questions that were similar in terms of the information solicited from respondents.

5.4.1.1 Phase one: Reviewing the general content of each study

A number of studies were identified as relevant in the literature review. These studies were analysed and potential emerging questions were critically reviewed. It is found that reviewing each study before using its questions provided a number of advantages. Firstly, it provided information that the researcher could use to evaluate whether or not the study was similar to the current study in terms of context and population

(Bradburn, Sudman & Wansink 2004). This, in turn, assisted the selection of the questions that were relevant or irrelevant to the aims of this study and allowed the researcher to move to the next phase (eliminating irrelevant questions). Secondly, reviewing each study had the advantage of making the researcher aware of any possible problems that might occur when using the particular questions because, in many cases, the authors discussed the problems that they had encountered with particular questions and made suggestions for ameliorating these problems in future research. For example, in their study entitled; “The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing”, Morgan and Hunt (1994) suggest that they only looked at relationship benefits in its economic sense and that future research should also consider non-economic relationship benefits to be a determinant of commitment.

5.4.1.2 Phase Two: Eliminating irrelevant questions

After critically reviewing each study, information is used from the previous phase to evaluate questions that are relevant, and to identify those that are not by looking at the context of the study, as well as the content of the questions themselves. All irrelevant questions are eliminated during this phase and only relevant questions are passed onto the next elimination phase where identical questions are eliminated. An example of one of the questions that was irrelevant and was eliminated during this phase was ‘This supplier is quite willing to make a long-term investment in helping us’ (Anderson & Weitz 1989). This question is eliminated because it is asking about long- term investment between a business and a supplier that is not applicable for a resort context.

5.4.1.3 Phase Three: Eliminating identical questions

Though irrelevant questions are removed during the previous phase, many questions remain. A large number of these questions are almost identical because they were modifications of questions in previous studies. For example, the question ‘In general it would be a hassle changing banks’ used by Jones, Mothersbaugh and Beatty (2000) is resembles the question ‘In general it would be a hassle switching to another company’ used by Yang and Peterson (2004). The earlier version is the original question (Jones, Mothersbaugh & Beatty 2000) whereas the latter version (Yang & Peterson 2004) is an adopted version (see Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1: Example of how identical questions were eliminated.

Therefore, this phase of development begins with a process where similar questions were placed together in year order (For example, 1990, 1992, 1992 …). This provides a means of distinguishing an original question from an adopted question, and ultimately assists the elimination process. In this way, several versions of similar questions are eliminated leaving only one question of each type. In most cases (unless the later versions are more appropriate to the current study) the later versions are

Several identical questions From earliest to most recent

Jones, Matherbaugh and Beatty (2000): In general it would be a hassle changing banks

Yang and Patterson (2004): In general it would be a hassle switching to another company

One selected questions

Jones, Matherbaugh and Beatty (2000): In general it would be a hassle changing banks.

5.4.1.4 Phase Four: Eliminating similar questions

It may sometimes be appropriate to ask the same question twice in order to check the consistency of the answer. However, a questionnaire should not take too long to complete. According to Jennings (2001), the time involved in the data collection process is especially important when the decision to participate is voluntary. The quicker the process the more people are willing to participate in the study. This is especially true in the case of a study seeking opinions of resort guests while they are on holiday. In this situation qualitative data collection methods, such as participant observation, in-depth interviews and/or focus groups, may not be the most appropriate ways to collect data because the guests would find the data collection processes intrusive (on their holiday time).

Taking these factors into account, this phase of the research is conducted to eliminate questions that explore the same theme. For example, the questions ‘I am committed to my relationship with my researcher’ (Moorman, Zaltman & Deshpande 1992), ‘I am very committed to this grocery store’ (Bettencourt 1997) and ‘I feel a commitment to continuing a relationship with this hairstylist’ (Price & Arnould 1999) all seek to establish the level of commitment that customers have towards their exchange partner. As a result, only one of these questions and not all three are used in the present questionnaire. When selecting which question to use, the best option is to select a question that had been used in many studies rather than one that had been used in only one study. When eliminating similar questions, an analysis is conducted of previous studies with a view to determining how often a particular type of question is used. The question that has been used most frequently is selected for this study because this

version is seen to have undergone the most testing, and therefore is likely to be more valid. The final questionnaire is given in Appendix B.