Applications of structural equation modeling in marketing and consumer research: A review

This paper reviews prior applications of structural equation modeling in four major marketing journals (the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Journal of Consumer Research) between 1977 and 1994. After documenting and characterizing the number of applications over time, we discuss important methodological issues related to structural equation modeling and assess the quality of previous applications in terms of three aspects: issues related to the initial specification of theoretical models of interest; issues related to data screening prior to model estimation and testing; and issues related to the estimation and testing of theoretical models on empirical data. On the basis of our findings, we identify problem areas and suggest avenues for improvement.