Indirect effect (for a non-significant relationship)

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thomasmakz@gmail.com
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Real name and title: Thomas Mak

Indirect effect (for a non-significant relationship)

Post by thomasmakz@gmail.com »

My situation is:

Y1-->Y3, path coefficient = 0.173; p= 0.054
Y1-->Y2, path coefficient = 0.413; p= 0.000
Y2-->Y3, path coefficient = 0.500; p= 0.000

my question is
Q1. can i state the result like this: although the relationship Y1-->Y3 is not significant, Y1 has indirect effect on Y3 through Y2 (0.413 X 0.5),
Q2 if yes, is there any significance test for the indirect effect?
Q3 if yes of Q1, shall i sum up the indirect effect and direct effect (not significant) to total effect?
Thank you very much
jmbecker
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Re: Indirect effect (for a non-significant relationship)

Post by jmbecker »

Q1: You might conclude this if the indirect effect is significant. The situation you describe is called a mediation model (in your case with an insignificant direct effect a full mediation).
Q2: Yes, you also get the significance information for indirect effects from the bootstrap results. (SmartPLS 3)
Q3: It totally depends on what you want to study. The total effect might be interesting for you (you also get significance information on total effects from the bootstrap results) or it might not be. You should familiarize yourself with the concept of mediation and assess your model again based on that concept.
Dr. Jan-Michael Becker, BI Norwegian Business School, SmartPLS Developer
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Michael_Becker
GoogleScholar: http://scholar.google.de/citations?user ... AAAJ&hl=de
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Hengkov
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Re: Indirect effect (for a non-significant relationship)

Post by Hengkov »

Q1: Yes, if you examine the direct effect first.
Q2: Many approaches are available today, but in the PLS you can use the bootstrap CI.
Q3: I think the total effect is not in accordance with your studies.
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