Addressing common method variance in country- and destination-image research: Two practical approaches

Hans Baumgartner (Corresponding author), Alessandro De Nisco (Corresponding author), Adamantios Diamantopoulos (Corresponding author)

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

Self-administered surveys are a widespread data collection method in tourism research. However, survey-based data are prone to what is widely referred to as common method variance (CMV). Common method variance represents systematic error variance which can potentially have a substantial confounding influence on empirical findings, since it can lead to incorrect assessments of construct validity and reliability as well as biased parameter estimates. Surprisingly, addressing common method variance issues is still an exception in tourism research. This study advocates the use of two approaches and it demonstrates the practical implementation of these approaches by drawing on a seven-country online survey of tourists’ perceptions of and intentions to visit Italy conducted on a sample of 4550 respondents intercepted in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey.
Findings clearly reveal that common method variance is not a trivial issue that can be safely ignored when estimating models aimed at assessing country and destination images and at explaining tourists’ intentions to visit and/or positive word of mouth. Therefore, the study provides concrete insights and directions to tourism researchers seeking to address this issue in their empirical endeavors.
Original languageEnglish
Article number100906
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Destination Marketing & Management
Volume33
Early online date14 Jun 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 502019 Marketing

Keywords

  • Common method variance (CVM)
  • Common method bias
  • Destination image
  • Country image
  • Survey research
  • Response biases

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