Adaptive Conjoint Analysis: Understanding the Methodology and Assessing Reliability and Validity

It is widely known that preference is not an observable phenomenon per se but a construct and in so far „a term specifically designed for a special scientific purpose generally to organize knowledge and direct research in attempt to describe or explain some aspect of nature“ (Peter 1981, 134) for which „[...] measures can be developed which at least partially represent the constructs.“ (Peter and Churchill 1986, 1). Consequently, measuring a construct implies that „numbers are assigned to objects [...] in such a way that the relations between the numbers reflect the relations between the objects [...] with respect to the characteristic involved“ (Green, Tull and Albaum 1988, 243).