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Research Article

Causes and Solutions of Uncommon Method Bias

Park, Wonu1 · Park, Subin1 · Lee, Hyerim1 · Oh, Minju1 · Maeng, Junseong2

1 Seoul National University, 2 Kookmin University

Published: January 2023 · Vol. 52, No. 1 · pp. 111-136

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2023.52.1.111

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Abstract

Common method bias(CMB) occurs when the measurement of all variables within a conceptual framework is done with a single i.e. common method. The importance of overcoming CMB as a key way to increase the quality of research has been recognized by most scholars, that it is often treated as a basic condition to be fulfilled in doing an empirical study. Thus, the use of uncommon methods became a fad to overcome CMB. By recognizing that uncommon method also has problems, this paper describes uncommon method bias(UMB) thoroughly: What it is, why it happens, and finally the six ways to overcome it. Furthermore, 1,529 empirical papers published in past 14 years (2008~2021) in three prominent Korea journals were analyzed in detail to see to what extent they recognized the issue of CMB and/or UMB, and how they tried to overcome them. Unlike growing recognition and effort to overcome CMB, none of the 1,529 papers has mentioned anything about UMB, not to mention any efforts to overcome it.
Keywords: Uncommon method bias(UMB)Common method bias(CMB)Uncommon method variance (UMV)Common method variance(CMV)