5.4. Hypotheses testing
In SEM analysis, the relationships among independent and dependent variables are assessed simultaneously via covariance
analysis. Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation is used to estimate model parameters with the covariance matrix as the inputted data. The ML estimation method has been described as being well suited to theory testing and development (Anderson&Gerbing, 1988; Hair et al., 1998; Joreskog&Sorbom, 1993).