Operationalisation

Operationalisation is the process of turning an abstract construct into something concretely measurable. Customer loyalty becomes a specific set of questionnaire items, scored a specific way; organisational size becomes headcount or annual turnover. It is the bridge between your conceptual framework and your data.

Every operational decision narrows the construct, so the choice must be defended. Wherever possible adopt a scale already validated in published research, cite its source, and report its reliability in your own sample. Inventing items without validation is one of the most common weaknesses examiners identify.

Document each construct's operational definition, item wording, response format, scoring rules and source in a table within the methodology chapter. This is what allows another researcher to replicate your study, and it is the evidence that your measures match the constructs your hypotheses actually name.