A DISCREPANCY-BASED MEASUREMENT APPROACH FOR DATA INTEGRATION

Abstract

This paper presents a measurement instrument for diagnosing the level of data integration at the organization and organization subunit levels. Incorporating consideration for specific theoretical properties related to data integration into its design, the measurement instrument relies on a discrepancy (or gap) measure to adequately account for these properties. Data from forty-eight organizations of the Group Insurance industry are used to test the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument. The results suggest that the discrepancy measure, based on the difference between respondents' ideal (i.e. normative) and actual estimates of data integration, appears to be a valid indicator of data integration. However the efficacy of using a discrepancy measure, over the simpler use of its parts, must be considered in light of practical and theoretical considerations.