Construct validity of knowledge-based economy indicators

Abstract

Some research institutes and countries have proposed knowledge-based economy (KBE) indicators in recent years, but these indicators often differ from one another. Notably, it is not clear whether the construct validities of these indicators are acceptable. This work hypothesized that different indicators are not independent of one another. To examine this hypothesis, this work used the multitrait-multimethod and structure equation modeling approaches to assess the construct validity of the KBE indicators on three principal methods of APEC, OECD and WB. Overall, the results support these hypotheses and find that three indicators were closely related to one another. Thus, this work suggests that applying the multiple-trait and multiple-method measurement help evaluate the KBE competitiveness of a country because the various KBE indicators excel in different fields.

Keywords and phrases:

• Construct validity
• knowledge-based economy
• multitrait-multimethod