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| The Moderation Effect in Management Research：from Statistical Significance to Practical Significance |
| ZHENG Lu，WANG Lina，LONG Lirong，MENG Fanxing，Alexander Scott English |
| 1. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China; 2. Zhejiang Police College, Hangzhou, China; 3. Wenzhou-Kean University,Wenzhou, Zhejiang，China |
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Abstract Nowadays, management researchers commonly rely on statistical significance when testing the moderation effects. However, statistical significance is not equivalent to practical significance. This study has four purposes. First, this study described the difference between the statistical significance and the practical significance of the moderation effect. Second, this study applied the method of bibliometrics to analyze the published studies between 2011 and 2023 with reported moderation effects in four top-tier management journals in China, i.e., Journal of management world, Nankai Management Review, Acta Psychologica Sinica and Chinese Journal of Management. The results show that Chinese management researchers have paid more attention to the practical significance of the moderation effect, but the magnitude of the practical significance reported was not substantial. Third, we further introduced two analytical strategies for evaluating the practical significance of moderation effects: Deviation R-square (ΔR2) and the absolute discrepancies between the dependent variable’s predicted values from two regression models. Finally, this study illustrated the two analytical strategies for testing the practical significance of the moderation effects using the raw data of a recently published study.
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Received: 26 October 2024
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