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Hi

I am following Hair et al., (2017) where it is written that "It is important to note that the elimination of items purely on statistical grounds can have adverse consequences for the content validity of the constructs. ....... At least two expert coders should conduct this judgment independently to ensure a high degree of objectivity."

However in accordance with Hair et,. (2010), it says that only 20% questions can be deleted from questionnaire. Moreover, i found the similar instructions in other forums.

Here I would like to know that is it compulsory that only 20% of questions can be deleted to achieve higher AVE or CR, if yes, can I have references please.

Deleting too many questions/items is never good, but I would refrain from using strict numbers. Generally, you had (hopefully) a theory of why that question/item may be important for your measurement. Some items might not turn out to be good indicators for some situations and deleting them might be better than keeping them, but generally, the more items the better.