Development of the research instrument for evaluating the desire to live in an industrial city

This study aims to develop a valid instrument to measure the two mediating variables namely place brand image and engagement with the place in the relationship between place brand benefits and employees’ desire to stay in Bintulu, a newly established industrial city in the east part of Malaysia. To fulfil the objective, this study assesses the validity and reliability of instruments before carrying out the primary data collection. This instrument has been devised based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model and takes the form of a questionnaire for employed individuals who were born outside of Bintulu. The development of the valid instrument in this study involves four stages of validity test: panel experts examine the content validity; targeted respondents determine the face validity; exploratory factor analysis assesses the construct validity; and internal consistency measures the instrument’s reliability. This study successfully gathered thirty-five usable questionnaires from working adults in Bintulu. The finding of this preliminary study demonstrates that the instrument is valid and reliable. All thirty-seven original items are thus retained. Performing step-by-step validity checks is essential in designing an instrument to assure its reliability. Using validated questionnaires in future studies can provide reliable empirical results, making them a practical solution.