Understanding the results of multiple linear regression: Beyond standardized regression coefficients

KF Nimon, FL Oswald�- Organizational Research Methods, 2013 - journals.sagepub.com
Organizational Research Methods, 2013journals.sagepub.com
Multiple linear regression (MLR) remains a mainstay analysis in organizational research, yet
intercorrelations between predictors (multicollinearity) undermine the interpretation of MLR
weights in terms of predictor contributions to the criterion. Alternative indices include validity
coefficients, structure coefficients, product measures, relative weights, all-possible-subsets
regression, dominance weights, and commonality coefficients. This article reviews these
indices, and uniquely, it offers freely available software that (a) computes and compares all�…
Multiple linear regression (MLR) remains a mainstay analysis in organizational research, yet intercorrelations between predictors (multicollinearity) undermine the interpretation of MLR weights in terms of predictor contributions to the criterion. Alternative indices include validity coefficients, structure coefficients, product measures, relative weights, all-possible-subsets regression, dominance weights, and commonality coefficients. This article reviews these indices, and uniquely, it offers freely available software that (a) computes and compares all of these indices with one another, (b) computes associated bootstrapped confidence intervals, and (c) does so for any number of predictors so long as the correlation matrix is positive definite. Other available software is limited in all of these respects. We invite researchers to use this software to increase their insights when applying MLR to a data set. Avenues for future research and application are discussed.
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