The downward spiral for many manuscripts begins with the failure to adequately define the focal construct of the study. A considerable number of pages in the front end of most manuscripts are devoted to thoroughly reviewing the , and often conflicting conceptualizations of the focal construct found in the research literature. In many instances, what emerges from this review is a rich-but not altogether clear-sense of the conceptual meaning of the focal construct. At this point, successful authors will wrestle with these difficult conceptual issues and attempt to synthesize the alternative conceptualizations. However, too many authors abdicate their responsibility to do this and instead move on to their discussion of the hypotheses. As a result, they never develop a clear, concise conceptual definition of the focal construct. This fundamental failure produces a series of subsequent problems