Two USF Sarasota-Manatee hospitality and tourism professors have published a new book exploring a research methodology popular in social science and business research: the Partial-Least Squares-based Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), which has typically been associated with marketing and accounting research and management information systems. The book, Applying Partial Least Squares in Tourism and Hospitality Research, edited by Faizan Ali, Ph.D., and Cihan Cobanoglu, Ph.D., both of USF Sarasota-Manatee, and S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh, Ph.D., of Taylor’s University in Malaysia, was published in the spring and explores the application of the methodology to hospitality and tourism research.

The professors collaborated on the book for a year, sifting through 45 submissions to narrow the field to 10 chapters. Contributors include 28 researchers from 18 universities worldwide. Ali, whose research has appeared in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, has been invited to speak about his work with PLS-SEM at an upcoming conference in Beijing.