Beyond External Validity

The article presents a commentary on the article "On the External Validity of Experiments in Consumer Research," by John G. Lynch, Jr. The authors contend that the concept of external validity is relatively less important than other forms of validity when the objective of research is to test theory. They explain that external validity is a matter of the applicability of behavioral research. The authors propose an alternative approach that would put external validity on a par with construct and other validity issues in theory tests.