of the findings.

Therefore, these nine cases were excluded from the data set and
finally 232 valid cases with eight IVs (including minimum five to maximum seven
items) and a total of 51 items satisfied a very good case-to-variable ratio for
confirmatory factor analysis (Hair et al., 1998; Schumacker and Lomax, 1996;
Tabachnick and Fidell, 2001). Apart from these, this sample size also satisfies the
Hulland et al. (1996) recommendation of 200 or more in a sample for any complex
structural model analysis.

In the outline of the sample validation process, respondents’ and firms’ profiles as
well as characteristics, non-response bias, examination of data entry and handling
with missing data, and assessment of outlier cases have been reported in this section.
As reported, the initial responses totalled 262 (response rate 43.67%) which were
used for reporting the respondent and firm profile and verification of group (industrial
and commercial) response. The data screening and refinement process identified 21
responses as unusable and were excluded. The remaining 241 responses were used to
identify the outlier cases. In this process, data normality was tested and nine
univariate and multivariate outlier cases were identified by conducting standardized z
score and Mahalanobis distance. Consequently, excluding those nine outlier cases, the
Md._Abu_Saleh_Thesis 2006
usable final sample size consisted of 232 for confirmatory factor analysis and
structural model testing.

5.2 Measurement Development

To proceed with measuring the fit, there are some interrelated statistical techniques
usually used to analyse the data as a supportive stream. Therefore, this section
explores the reliability scores for the construct measures followed by confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA). The reliability tests examine the internal consistency of the
item in a measure to determine whether each observed variable should be retained or
any exclusion should be done. This process follows the development of an individual
measurement model for each construct measure to CFA and the overall measurement
model to check the dimensionality of the construct and validity of the measures.

5.2.1 Fit Indices

The use of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) has steadily increased in the
business literature where three forms of SEM are identified. The first form consists of

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