Comparative assessment of structural equation modeling and multiple regression research methodologies: E-commerce context

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a powerful statistical technique that establishes measurement models and structural models. On the other hand, multiple regression (MR) is considered a sophisticated and well-developed modeling approach to data analysis with a history of more than 100 years. This paper empirically compares SEM and MR by testing a model of commitment in a B-to-C e-commerce travel context, shedding light on applications of these two popular methods in tourism research. The findings indicate that only two significant relationships are justified by MR. In comparison, SEM results reveal more statistically significant relationships after the “best-fitting” measurement model with model D being the “best-fitting” model. The findings support some key empirical limitations of MR as a widely used statistical technique in the tourism research.