Expert assessment method in socio-economic research and Scales transformations

Abstract

The article discusses the expert assessment method and its utilization in socio-economic research. It provides an overview of the main steps in application of this method and main difficulties or concerns that may arise on each of these steps. The authors focus on the scales that experts can use and possibilities of transformation of various scales to assure ease of use of such scales by experts as well as by researchers who evaluate and summarise the results of expert assessment. The article suggests several options of scale transformation and points out to the advantages of such approaches. It concludes with discussing some limitations and advantages of the method and suggests several directions for further research. Keywords—method, expert evaluation, scale, research methodology