“PLS-SEM: indeed a silver bullet” – retrospective observations and recent advances

Sarstedt, Marko ; Hair, Joseph F. and Ringle, Christian M. (2023): “PLS-SEM: indeed a silver bullet” – retrospective observations and recent advances. In: Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 31, No. 3: pp. 261-275

Abstract

Structural equation modeling (SEM) has become a quasi-standard in marketing and management research when it comes to analyzing the cause-effect relations between latent constructs. For most researchers, SEM is equivalent to carrying out covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM). While marketing researchers have a basic understanding of CB-SEM, most of them are only barely familiar with the other useful approach to SEM-partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM). The current paper reviews PLS-SEM and its algorithm, and provides an overview of when it can be most appropriately applied, indicating its potential and limitations for future research. The authors conclude that PLS-SEM path modeling, if appropriately applied, is indeed a "silver bullet" for estimating causal models in many theoretical models and empirical data situations.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Keywords: Structural equation modeling; SEM; partial least squares SEM; PLS-SEM
• Faculties: Munich School of Management > Institute for Marketing
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• ISSN: 1069-6679
• Annotation: Published online: 12 Apr 2022
• Language: English