Using WarpPLS in E-Collaboration Studies: Descriptive Statistics, Settings, and Key Analysis Results

A new article discussing WarpPLS is available. The article is titled “Using WarpPLS in E-Collaboration Studies: Descriptive Statistics, Settings, and Key Analysis Results”. It has been recently published in the International Journal of e-Collaboration. A full text version of the article is available here as a PDF file. Below is the abstract of the article.

This is a follow-up on a previous article (Kock, 2010b) discussing the five main steps through which a nonlinear structural equation modeling analysis could be conducted with the software WarpPLS (warppls.com). Both this and the previous article use data from the same e-collaboration study as a basis for the discussion of important WarpPLS features. Unlike in the previous article, the focus here is on specific features related to saving and analyzing grouped descriptive statistics, viewing and changing analysis algorithm and resampling settings, and viewing and saving the various minor and major results of the analysis. Even though its focus is on an e-collaboration study this article contributes to the broad literature on multivariate analysis methods, in addition to the more specific research literature on e-collaboration. The reason for this is that the vast majority of relationships between variables, in investigations of both natural and behavioral phenomena, are nonlinear; usually taking the form of U and S curves. Structural equation modeling software tools, whether variance- or covariance-based, typically do not estimate coefficients of association based on nonlinear analysis algorithms. WarpPLS is an exception in this respect. Without taking nonlinearity into consideration, the results can be misleading; especially in complex and multi-factorial situations such as those stemming from e-collaboration in virtual teams.

Using WarpPLS in e-collaboration studies: An overview of five main analysis steps

A new article discussing WarpPLS is available. The article is titled “Using WarpPLS in e-collaboration studies: An overview of five main analysis steps”. It has been recently published in the International Journal of e-Collaboration. A full text version of the article is available as a PDF file. Below is the abstract of the article.

Most relationships between variables describing natural and behavioral phenomena seem to be nonlinear, with U-curve and S-curve relationships being particularly common. Yet, structural equation modeling software tools do not typically estimate coefficients of association taking nonlinear relationships between latent variables into consideration. This can lead to misleading results, particularly in multivariate and complex phenomena such as those related to e-collaboration. One notable exception is WarpPLS (available from: warppls.com), a new structural equation modeling software currently available in its first release, version 1.0. The discussion presented here contributes to the literature on e-collaboration research methods by providing a description of the main features of WarpPLS, in the context of an e-collaboration study. The focus of this discussion is on the software’s features and their use, and not on the e-collaboration study itself. Particular emphasis is placed on the five steps through which a structural equation modeling analysis is conducted through WarpPLS.