Advanced Issues in Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling

The second edition of Advanced Issues in Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling offers a straightforward and practical guide to PLS-SEM for users ready to go further than the basics of A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, 3^rd edition. Even in this advanced guide, the authors have limited the emphasis on equations, formulas, and Greek symbols, and instead rely on detailed explanations of the fundamentals of PLS-SEM and provide general guidelines for understanding and evaluating the results of applying the method. A single study on corporate reputation features as an example throughout the book, along with a single software package (SmartPLS 4.0) to provide a seamless learning experience. The approach of this book is based on the authors’ many years of conducting research and teaching methodology courses, including developing the SmartPLS software. The preparation of the book, especially this new edition, is based on the authors’ desire to communicate the PLS-SEM method to a much broader audience from management and marketing to engineering, geography, medicine, political and environmental sciences, psychology, and beyond. The second edition includes a new chapter on the necessary condition analysis (NCA) and covers the most recent developments in PLS-SEM, with detailed guidelines for estimating and validating higher-order constructs and nonlinear effects as well as more insights on multigroup and latent class analyses using FIMIX-PLS and PLS-POS. The book is aimed at researchers and practitioners who seek to gain comprehensive knowledge of more advanced PLS-SEM methods.

Joseph F. Hair, Jr. is Cleverdon Chair of Business, and director of the PhD degree in business administration, Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama. He previously held the Copeland Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and was Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute, Ourso College of Business Administration, Louisiana State University. Joe was recognized by Clarivate Analytics from 2018 through 2024 for being in the top 1% globally of all business and economics professors based on his citations and scholarly accomplishments, which exceed 550,000 over his career. He has authored more than 145 editions of his books, including Multivariate Data Analysis (8^th edition, 2019; cited 240,000+ times), PLS-SEM  Primer (4^th edition; 2026); Advanced PLS (2^nd edition, 2024); MKTG (14^th edition, 2024); Essentials of Business Research Methods (5^th edition, 2024); Essentials of Marketing Analytics (2^nd edition, 2025); and Essentials of Marketing Research (6^th edition, 2026). He also has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and was recognized as the Academy of Marketing Science Marketing Educator of the Year. As a popular guest speaker, Professor Hair often presents seminars on research techniques, multivariate data analysis, and marketing issues for organizations in Europe, Australia, China, India, and South America. He has a forthcoming book on Sales Analytics (Sage 2026).

Marko Sarstedt is a chaired professor of marketing at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Germany) and an adjunct research professor at Babe?-Bolyai-University Cluj-Napoca (Romania). His main research interest is the advancement of research methods and psychological measurement to further the understanding of consumer behavior. His research has been published in Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Multivariate Behavioral Research, Organizational Research Methods, MIS Quarterly, and Psychometrika, among others. His research ranks Marko among the most frequently cited in the social sciences with more than 300,000 citations according to Google Scholar. Marko has won numerous best paper and citation awards and has been repeatedly named member of Clarivate Analytics' Highly Cited Researchers List. In March 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Babe?-Bolyai-University Cluj-Napoca for his research achievements and contributions to international exchange.

Christian M. Ringle is a Chaired Professor and the Director of the Institute of Management and Decision Sciences at the Hamburg University of Technology (Germany), an Adjunct Professor at the James Cook University (Australia), a Visiting Guest Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley (USA), and an RHB-UKM Endowment Fund Distinguished Chairholder at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). His research focuses on management, marketing, technology and innovation management, method development, business analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the application of business research methods to decision making. His contributions have been published in journals such as Decision Sciences, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Information Systems Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Long Range Planning, MIS Quarterly, and Organizational Research Methods. Since 2018, Christian has been included in the Clarivate Analytics¿ list of Highly Cited Researchers (HCR). He is a co-developer and co-founder of the statistical software SmartPLS (https://www-smartpls.com). More info: https://www.tuhh.de/mds/team/prof-dr-c-m-ringle.

Siegfried P. Gudergan is Professor of Strategy within James Cook University in Australia. He also is a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Aalto University in Finland, Visiting Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) in Austria, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He holds a PhD in Management from the Australian Graduate School of Management that was awarded by both the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales in Australia, and a degree in Business and Economics from RWTH-Aachen University in Germany. His research has been published in leading management, strategy, and marketing journals, and is recognized internationally. Some of his PhD students have won awards from the Academy of Management and Strategic Management Society. He has various board and professional roles, and has consulted to or worked with numerous organizations, including start-ups and large multinational companies.