The Library
Marketing or methodology? Exposing the fallacies of PLS with simple demonstrations
Tools
Rönkkö, Mikko, Lee, Nick, Evermann, Joerg, McIntosh, Cameron and Antonakis, John (2023) Marketing or methodology? Exposing the fallacies of PLS with simple demonstrations. European Journal of Marketing, 57 (6). pp. 1597-1617. doi:10.1108/EJM-02-2021-0099 ISSN 0309-0566.
|
PDF
10-1108_EJM-02-2021-0099.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (1642Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-02-2021-0099
Abstract
Purpose
Over the past 20 years, partial least squares (PLS) has become a popular method in marketing research. At the same time, several methodological studies have demonstrated problems with the technique but have had little impact on its use in marketing research practice. This study aims to present some of these criticisms in a reader-friendly way for non-methodologists.
Design/methodology/approach
Key critiques of PLS are summarized and demonstrated using existing data sets in easily replicated ways. Recommendations are made for assessing whether PLS is a useful method for a given research problem.
Findings
PLS is fundamentally just a way of constructing scale scores for regression. PLS provides no clear benefits for marketing researchers and has disadvantages that are features of the original design and cannot be solved within the PLS framework itself. Unweighted sums of item scores provide a more robust way of creating scale scores.
Research limitations/implications
The findings strongly suggest that researchers abandon the use of PLS in typical marketing studies.
Practical implications
This paper provides concrete examples and techniques to practicing marketing and social science researchers regarding how to incorporate composites into their work, and how to make decisions regarding such.
Originality/value
This work presents a novel perspective on PLS critiques by showing how researchers can use their own data to assess whether PLS (or another composite method) can provide any advantage over simple sum scores. A composite equivalence index is introduced for this purpose.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HF Commerce Q Science > QA Mathematics |
||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Least squares, Marketing research, Marketing research -- Mathematical models, Structural equation modeling, Regression analysis | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | European Journal of Marketing | ||||||||
Publisher: | Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0309-0566 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 30 May 2023 | ||||||||
Dates: |
|
||||||||
Volume: | 57 | ||||||||
Number: | 6 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1597-1617 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1108/EJM-02-2021-0099 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2022, Mikko Rönkkö, Nick Lee, Joerg Evermann, Cameron McIntosh and John Antonakis. | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 3 November 2023 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 3 November 2023 |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year