Guest Lecture from University of South Alabama, USA : Reflections on Social Sciences Research

On Tuesday(15/10), FEB UI held a guest lecture session for postgraduate students and lecturers. The first topic is , “Reflections on Social Sciences Research: Past-Present-Future” and second, “Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling: An Emerging Tool in Social Sciences Research” which was delivered by Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Dr. Joe F Hair Jr From University of South Alabama, USA with Prof. Dr. Adi Zakaria Afiff as the moderator. The session was held at Soenario Kolopaking Room, Dean Building FEB UI.

Dr. Joe F Hair Jr statistically analyzed social sciences research in historical perspectives, which include the past, present, and future. While he was explaining the historical progress of Structural Equation Modeling, he took notice of the first application of SEM for predicting the birth weight of guinea pigs in 1921 to demonstrate his point the research is relevant to various areas.

He emphasized the importance of using SEM even today because users still need to know how to design a study, choose correct method, apply assumptions and rules of thumb, and deal with “red flags’ in results. Also, SEM papers are evaluated more favourably on key manuscript attributes than Non-SEM papers. Afterwards, he identified two types of the theoretical measurement model, which are Covariance-Based SEM and Partial Least Squares SEM, each refers to CB-SEM and PLS-SEM. Regarding choosing between CB-SEM and PLS-SEM, he said that use CB-SEM when the goal is theory testing, theory confirmation, or the comparison of alternative theories. On the other hand, use PLS-SEM when the goal is predicting key target constructs or identifying key “driver” constructs and the prediction is objective. At the end of the session, participants asked him several questions regarding the topic and Dr Joe F Hair Jr kindly answered the questions. Lastly, there was an opportunity for participants to practice building SEM under the lecturer’s lead.

We sincerely thank Dr Joe F Hair Jr for visiting our university and sharing such valuable insight with us. Hopefully, this insight and shared knowledge would be beneficial for the participants. (IOFEB/OH/NS)