Development, validation, and reliability of a measurement scale for investigating the principle of intercooperation

The present study aims to develop and validate a measurement scale for investigating the principle of intercooperation, in order to provide researchers in the field of cooperativism with a valid and reliable measure. To this end, four main steps were followed: conceptual mastery, theoretical validation, semantic validation, and statistical validation. First, a preliminary scale was developed based on a literature review and interviews with 20 representatives of cooperatives and representative organizations. Later, the evaluation was carried out by eight academic judges and analyzed using the Content Validity Coefficient. A pre-test was then carried out with subjects from the population, and subsequently the scale was applied to a sample of 213 cooperatives. Finally, factor analysis was performed with the aim of evaluating convergent and factorial validity as well as individual and construct reliability. Thus, it is proposed that the principle of intercooperation be measured by two different scales. The first, called “Horizontal Intercooperation”, presented a Composite Reliability equal to 0.81 and Average Variance Extracted equal to 0.68. The second, called “Vertical Intercooperation”, presented a Composite Reliability equal to 0.96 and Average Variance Extracted equal to 0.69. After the analyses, the proposed intercooperation scales showed signs of validity and reliability.