Excluding Small Groups from Group Research Designs: Improving Statistical Power or Capitalizing on Chance?


Biemann, Torsten ; Heidemeier, Heike



DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496412443088
URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104649...
Document Type: Article
Year of publication: 2012
The title of a journal, publication series: Small Group Research
Volume: 43
Issue number: 4
Page range: 387-409
Place of publication: Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.]
Publishing house: Sage
ISSN: 1046-4964
Publication language: English
Institution: Business School > ABWL, Personalmanagement u. Führung (Biemann 2013-)
Subject: 330 Economics
Keywords (English): group size , statistical power , interrater agreement
Abstract: This article aims to contribute to a controversy over whether excluding some small or incomplete groups from a sample improves statistical power in group research designs (designs that relate group-level characteristics to group-level outcome measures). In a series of simulation studies, we examined the tradeoff between lower reliability and smaller sample size that occurs when very small groups, or incomplete groups are excluded. Distinguishing reflective aggregation models (where scores for different group members are interchangeable) and formative aggregation models (where scores for different group members are not interchangeable), we analyzed the impact that the number of groups, the number of individuals within groups, intraclass correlation (ICC[1]) values, and interrater agreement have on statistical power. The results provided evidence that excluding groups is mostly ill-advised and may fail to improve the conclusions that researchers draw from their results. Common practice and the assumptions that researchers make when excluding groups from their samples are discussed.




Dieser Datensatz wurde nicht während einer Tätigkeit an der Universität Mannheim veröffentlicht, dies ist eine Externe Publikation.




Metadata export


Citation


+ Search Authors in

+ Page Views

Hits per month over past year

Detailed information



You have found an error? Please let us know about your desired correction here: E-Mail


Actions (login required)

Show item Show item