correlational/causal language in PLS-SEM reporting

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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Ingrid Snijders
PLS User
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2016 2:25 pm
Real name and title: drs Ingrid Snijders

correlational/causal language in PLS-SEM reporting

Post by Ingrid Snijders »

With PLS-SEM the aim is to predict. What kind of language do you have to use in reporting the study design and analyses: correlational or causal? I thought the latter.
jmbecker
SmartPLS Developer
Posts: 1282
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:09 am
Real name and title: Dr. Jan-Michael Becker

Re: correlational/causal language in PLS-SEM reporting

Post by jmbecker »

SEM in general is correlational. Some people use causal language because they believe their theory is strong enough to make causal claims based on correlational data. Basically, you can make the same claims that you would do based on a multivariate regression; just with multiple-indicator measurement models and more complex path models.
With CB-SEM you can also set some additional testable constraints which facilitate additional causal claims that are not possible with PLS-SEM, but in general they do not differ much in this regard.
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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