In a forthcoming article at the Journal of Marketing Research, Constant Pieters, Rik Pieters and I compare through extensive simulations different ways to interact variables when one of them is latent. Think about an experiment that manipulates the context a consumer operates in and we want to understand the effect of a psychological trait (latent) on the consumer’s behavior? These situations occur in companies’ daily practices. For instance, how does consumers’ thinking style impact the effectiveness of a particular marketing intervention (a social media campaign)? How does a customer’s relationship with a company affect the success of a proactive retention offer?

As we know, not accounting for measurement error has severe consequences, but the problem turns out to be even more detrimental to the conclusions we draw as scientists or practitioners when we explore interaction effects (e.g., moderation) like the ones just mentioned. Luckily, there are some methodologically sound and affordable solutions to this problem. The article provides concrete guidance on the best methodological approach to follow. If you want to know more, check the paper here.

The paper is part of Constant’s PhD dissertation. Congrats to him!