Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Original Publication Date

2017

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

First Page

5737

Last Page

5746

DOI of Original Publication

https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2017.691

Date of Submission

August 2025

Abstract

This study offers a method for empirically testing theories operationalized in the form of multivariate statistical models. An innovation of the method is that it distinguishes testing into three separate forms, “effect testing,” “prediction testing,” and “theory testing,” where statistical significance plays a separate role in each one. In another innovation, the researcher specifies not only his or her desired level of statistical significance, but also his or her desired level of practical significance. Statistical significance and practical significance each serve as a dimension in a two-dimensional table that specifies the rejection region – the region where the researcher can justify the decision to reject the theory being tested. The boundary of the rejection region is the “validity frontier,” which ongoing research may advance so as to reduce the size of the rejection region.

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-ND)

Recommended Citation

Lee, A., Mohajeri, K., & Hubona, G. (2017). "Three roles for statistical significance and the validity frontier in theory testing." Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2017.691

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