Negative path coefficient when it should be positve

Questions about the implementation and application of the PLS-SEM method, that are not related to the usage of the SmartPLS software.
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Profiler
PLS Junior User
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2019 9:34 am
Real name and title: Miss Shyama AlSharhan

Negative path coefficient when it should be positve

Post by Profiler »

Hi everyone,

I have a negative path coefficient between LV and DV , where the LV is likelihood to start a business and DV is categorical variable which is the type of business, so the path coefficient must be positive but I got a coefficient of -.359 and p-value of .085 (>.05).

1-How is that possible ? and how can justify it in my thesis?

2- Can SmartPLS deal with final categorical DV (after dummy-codeding it) ? am confused because i've read in the forum some who says it can it limitation and some says it cant
jmbecker
SmartPLS Developer
Posts: 1281
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:09 am
Real name and title: Dr. Jan-Michael Becker

Re: Negative path coefficient when it should be positve

Post by jmbecker »

First, categorical variables do not work well as a DV in PLS as it assumes metric variables like in a regression. Hence, it uses your 1,2,3 (or whatever categories you have) as a 1,2,3 in a metric sense. That could already explain the strange result.

Moreover, if a coefficient is not significant (from zero) it is somewhat meaningless to talk about its sign as it is likely that it could be a null effect.
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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