0000000000097242
AUTHOR
Cameron Mcintosh
Rejoinder: fractures in the edifice of PLS
Purpose This study aims to provide a response to the commentary by Yuan on the paper “Marketing or Methodology” in this issue of EJM. Design/methodology/approach Conceptual argument and statistical discussion. Findings The authors find that some of Yuan’s arguments are incorrect, or unclear. Further, rather than contradicting the authors’ conclusions, the material provided by Yuan in his commentary actually provides additional reasons to avoid partial least squares (PLS) in marketing research. As such, Yuan’s commentary is best understood as additional evidence speaking against the use of PLS in real-world research. Research limitations/implications This rejoinder, coupled with Yuan’s comm…
Marketing or methodology? : Exposing the fallacies of PLS with simple demonstrations
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. PL…