Perceived Customer Uncertainty Scale (Downsizing)

What it measures

Four-item manager-rated scale measuring perceived customer uncertainty following a supplier’s workforce reduction at the customer interface. Captures uncertainty about how to respond to the downsizing, how severely it will affect customers, whether it will negatively affect the business relationship, and whether the relationship will continue. Adapted from Rafferty and Griffin (2006) employee uncertainty measure to a supplier–customer context.

Response format

7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree); manager-rated across the customer base

Scale items

• Many of our customers seemed uncertain about how to respond to the downsizing.
• Many of our customers were unsure how severely the downsizing would affect them.
• Many of our customers were worried that the downsizing would negatively affect their business relationship with us.
• Many of our customers had doubts about the continuance of their business relationship with us.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Composite reliability = .85; AVE = .59. Item 2 (‘unsure how severely the downsizing would affect them’) has low individual item reliability (.33). Manager-rated version validated against actual customer data (r = .68, p < .05, n = 95 customers from 29 firms). Customer-rated version used in experimental studies (Study 1: α = .86, CR = .86, AVE = .60; Study 2: α = .77, CR = .77, AVE = .46). Adapted from Rafferty and Griffin (2006).

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Homburg, C., Klarmann, M., & Staritz, S. (2012). Customer uncertainty following downsizing: The effects of extent of downsizing and open communication. Journal of Marketing, 76(3), 112–129.

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