Table I Criteria for evaluating the... | Emerald Publishing

Table I

Criteria for evaluating the strength of the linear relationship between the importance and performance ratings of an attribute and the direction of the correlation

Interpreting the value of the correlation coefficient
Range of correlation values	Strength of linear relationship
Less than/under 0.20	Very weak relationship/Very low correlation
0.21–0.40	Weak relationship/Low correlation
0.41–0.70	Some relationship/Moderate correlation
0.71–0.90	Strong relationship/High correlation
Greater than/over 0.91	Very strong relationship/Very high correlation
Interpreting the sign of the correlation coefficient
Positive (+) values	Negative (−) values
Visitors rating of the importance and performance of the attribute match. For example:	Visitors rating of the Importance and Performance of the attribute are opposite. For example:
High-importance rating and high-performance rating	High-importance rating and low-performance rating
or	or
Low-importance rating and low-performance rating	Low-importance rating and high-performance rating

Interpreting the value of the correlation coefficient
Range of correlation values	Strength of linear relationship
Less than/under 0.20	Very weak relationship/Very low correlation
0.21–0.40	Weak relationship/Low correlation
0.41–0.70	Some relationship/Moderate correlation
0.71–0.90	Strong relationship/High correlation
Greater than/over 0.91	Very strong relationship/Very high correlation
Interpreting the sign of the correlation coefficient
Positive (+) values	Negative (−) values
Visitors rating of the importance and performance of the attribute match. For example:	Visitors rating of the Importance and Performance of the attribute are opposite. For example:
High-importance rating and high-performance rating	High-importance rating and low-performance rating
or	or
Low-importance rating and low-performance rating	Low-importance rating and high-performance rating

Source: Adapted from Sarantakos (1998)