PLS‑SEM for Strategic Business Insights and Decision Making

Call for Papers
PLS‑SEM for Strategic Business Insights and Decision Making

Journal: Strategic Business Research
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission deadline: 30 September 2026

This special issue focuses on the use of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS‑SEM) in strategic business research, inviting work that demonstrates how PLS‑SEM can generate strategic insights and evidence‑based support for decision‑making. It particularly welcomes empirical, methodological, conceptual, and multidisciplinary papers that integrate explanation and prediction, and clearly link their findings to managerial and policy implications.

Key focus

Guest editors

• Joe Hair, University of South Alabama, USA

• T. Ramayah, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia, and Sunway University, Malaysia

• Raluca Ciornea, Babeș‑Bolyai University, Romania

• Viraiyan Teeroovengadum, University of Mauritius, Mauritius

• Christian M. Ringle, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, and James Cook University, Australia

List of suggested topic areas

• Application of PLS‑SEM to strategic business and management research

• Integrating explanation and prediction using PLS‑SEM

• Decision‑making and managerial insight informed by PLS‑SEM results

• Predictive assessment and validation in PLS‑SEM (e.g., PLSpredict, CVPAT)

• Importance–Performance Map Analysis (IPMA / cIPMA) and prioritisation analyses

• Higher‑order and hierarchical component models in PLS‑SEM

• Formative measurement and complex construct modelling

• Multi‑group analysis, segmentation, and heterogeneity assessment

• Integrating PLS‑SEM with other methods (e.g., CB‑SEM, fsQCA, NCA, machine learning)

• Translating PLS‑SEM findings into actionable managerial and policy implications

• Review articles on the use of PLS‑SEM in strategic business research

• Tutorials on how to effectively apply PLS‑SEM methods in strategic business research

Expected contributions

• Clear justification for the use of PLS‑SEM

• Methodological rigor and transparent, state‑of‑the‑art reporting (e.g., via open data where possible)

• Explicit links between findings and strategic insights / decision‑making

• Theoretical contributions and managerially relevant implications

Submissions can be empirical, conceptual, methodological, or multidisciplinary.

Manuscript submission information

Authors are invited to submit via the journal’s Editorial Manager system before the deadline of 30 September 2026:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/sbr/default2.aspx

Please consult the Strategic Business Research Guide for Authors when preparing your manuscript and select the special issue article type “VSI: PLS‑SEM SBR” during submission.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/strategic-business-research/publish/guide-for-authors

All submissions deemed suitable will undergo double‑blind peer review involving at least two independent reviewers.

ServiceSetu Academics — Premier Platform for Academic Opportunities & Research Collaboration

Visit official website of the publisher