forum.smartpls.com

Dear all,
I am conducting a research using smartPLS v3.3.2 student version. I have 6 latent variables , the greatest number of indicators is 6. Data population is 18, total sampling. Data can be run, all tests inner and outer has passed, the bootstrapping process has no problem resulting 2 of 5 hypothesis rejected. But I still have doubts because the sample size is very small. Some opinions said that the sample should 30-100 and less than 30 can't using PLS, some said there's no minimum sample rules for PLS. I'm a student and new in statistic. The questions are:
1. with conditions like the one above, is my research acceptable?
2. how many sample should i really use?
Please help me...

The Hair et al 2017 book has a table of recommended sample sizes, based on the number of arrows pointing at a variable and of course the R2 you have.

I suppose all data is acceptable up to a point when you mention the sample size but ideally you'd need a bigger sample according to Hair.

At 5% significance level you'd need 175, 75, 48 or 39 responses for R2s of 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 respectively.