“PLS-SEM: indeed a silver bullet” – retrospective observations and recent advances

ABSTRACT

In 2011, the Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice published “PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet,” which became a cornerstone contribution in marketing. Critical reflection of research work is a fundamental building block of science, including one’s own writing. In this spirit, we offer a review of our own 2011 paper, assuming we were reviewers with today’s background knowledge of the method. Taking a reviewer’s perspective in our comments, we clarify several ambiguities in our initial overview presentation and offer updates of – from today’s perspective– outdated descriptions that led to some criticisms in recent years which have since been overcome.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Although this research does not use the SmartPLS statistical software (https://www.smartpls.com), Ringle acknowledges a financial interest in SmartPLS.