Reference no: EM134014670
Paper: Meta-Review
Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using JASP
Purpose of the assessment
This meta-review requires you to demonstrate a thorough and critical understanding of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and its application to tourism and hospitality research. You will analyse visitor survey data to profile respondents, compare male and female visitor behaviour, develop and justify your own hypotheses from the literature, and test a theoretical model examining the mediating role of Customer Satisfaction in the relationship between visitor perceptions and Brand Loyalty.
You are required to work through each step of the SEM process in JASP, document your analysis and decisions in a structured written paper, and critically discuss your findings in the context of existing research. Upon completion, you will have developed an informed, practical, and critical understanding of how SEM is applied to real research problems - directly informing your dissertation methodology. Concepts from Quantitative Research Techniques may assist in understanding the analytical foundations of the study.
Research problem and objectives
The following research problem and objectives frame this assignment. You are required to develop your own hypotheses in Section 2 of your paper, grounded in your review of the relevant literature.
Based on this research problem, the study pursues the following objectives:
RO1: To profile the demographic characteristics of visitors surveyed at the destination.
RO2: To examine whether significant differences exist between male and female visitors in their perceptions of quality, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty.
RO3: To develop and test a set of hypotheses examining the relationships among Perceived Quality, Perceived Trust, Customer Satisfaction, and Brand Loyalty, with Customer Satisfaction proposed as a mediating variable. Knowledge of Hypothesis Testing And Goodness Of Fit can support the interpretation of model outcomes.
RO4: To assess whether the hypothesised structural model holds equally across male and female visitor groups using multi-group SEM.
RO5: To critically reflect on the application of SEM to tourism and hospitality research and its implications for dissertation methodology.
dataset
You will receive an individual CSV dataset via Moodle containing visitor survey responses. The dataset includes six demographic variables and fourteen Likert-scale items measuring four latent constructs. A full variable codebook is provided below.
Your dataset is unique to you. You must use only your assigned dataset - do not share data files with other students. Because each dataset produces different sample statistics, your outputs will differ from those of your classmates, and your written interpretation must reflect your own results. Understanding Survey Sampling principles may help when interpreting the characteristics of the respondent data.
Required paper structure
Your paper must follow the structure below. Each section maps to a mandatory stage of the analysis. The word counts are approximate guides - you may distribute words across sections as needed, provided the total does not exceed 3,500 words.
Section guidance
For each section, guiding questions are provided to help you think through what your analysis should address. These are not a checklist to follow mechanically - they are prompts to stimulate your own thinking and interpretation. Common mistakes observed in past submissions are also noted so you can avoid them.
Your writing must be your own analytical interpretation of your JASP outputs. Answers to the guiding questions must be grounded in your specific results and cited literature - generic or theoretical answers that do not reference your own data will not satisfy the marking criteria.