ABSTRACT
In the past decade, editorials (e.g., in the Journal of Consumer Research, Inman, Campbell, Kirmani, & Price, 2018; and the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Cohen, 2011), presidential addresses at the Association for Consumer Research (Inman, 2012), and commentaries (e.g., in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Lynch, Alba, Krishna, Morwitz, & Gürhan-Canli, 2012) have applied parts of the validity network schema (Brinberg & McGrath, 1985) in their call for increased emphasis on research paths less traveled in the field of consumer psychology, a move towards substantively driven from conceptually driven research, and a shift in the criteria to evaluate research – from rigor to relevance. Although we agree with the spirit of this call to action, we believe a more general framework will help guide thinking about the current role of validity and validation processes, in its many forms and meanings, and associated validity-related questions to inform future research.
