IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v132y2021icp530-543.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

So many ways for assessing outliers: What really works and does it matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Sullivan, Joe H.
  • Warkentin, Merrill
  • Wallace, Linda

Abstract

Recent research in leading business journals has varied widely in how statistical outliers are identified and handled; many techniques were reported. But most articles with empirical data have not mentioned outliers; many others simply referred to their removal without details. This wide variety of methods and frequent non-disclosure of methods cannot represent the best practice. Proper outlier identification and handling are important issues for any research community that performs quantitative research based on empirical data. We document this diversity of methods by examining articles published in the UTD-24 business journals during a 12-year period, and we explain why almost all methods described in these articles are ill-advised. To achieve an effective assessment of outliers, we propose a process of outlier identification based on testing hypotheses using a controlled significance level. The implementation of our suggested method is feasible using commonly available statistical analysis software.

Suggested Citation

  • Sullivan, Joe H. & Warkentin, Merrill & Wallace, Linda, 2021. "So many ways for assessing outliers: What really works and does it matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 530-543.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:132:y:2021:i:c:p:530-543
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.03.066
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321002290
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.03.066?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frazer, Lorelle, 2001. "Causes of disruption to franchise operations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 227-234, December.
    2. Anonymous, 2015. "Notes from the Editors," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(2), pages 1-1, May.
    3. Anonymous, 2015. "Notes from the Editors," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(4), pages 1-1, November.
    4. Bill L. Seaver & Konstantinos P. Triantis, 1995. "The Impact of Outliers and Leverage Points for Technical Efficiency Measurement Using High Breakdown Procedures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(6), pages 937-956, June.
    5. MacKenzie, Scott B. & Podsakoff, Philip M., 2012. "Common Method Bias in Marketing: Causes, Mechanisms, and Procedural Remedies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(4), pages 542-555.
    6. Anonymous, 2015. "Notes from the Editors," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 1-1, August.
    7. Ray Chambers & Adão Hentges & Xinqiang Zhao, 2004. "Robust automatic methods for outlier and error detection," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 167(2), pages 323-339, May.
    8. Grice, John Stephen & Ingram, Robert W., 2001. "Tests of the generalizability of Altman's bankruptcy prediction model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 53-61, October.
    9. Anonymous, 2015. "Notes from the Editors," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(1), pages 1-1, February.
    10. David Andrich, 1978. "A rating formulation for ordered response categories," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 43(4), pages 561-573, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mostafa M. Radwan & Ahmad Mousa & Elsaid Mamdouh Mahmoud Zahran, 2024. "Enhancing Pavement Sustainability: Prediction of the Pavement Condition Index in Arid Urban Climates Using the International Roughness Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Liu, Dewen & Han, Shenghao & Zhang, Jieqiong, 2022. "The golden mean: Research on the mechanism of customer participation in employee service innovation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Cao, Guangxi & Xie, Fei, 2023. "The asymmetric impact of crude oil futures on the clean energy stock market: Based on the asymmetric variable coefficient quantile regression model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    4. Xiao, Tianyi & Mu, Tong & Shen, Sunle & Song, Yiming & Yang, Shufan & He, Jie, 2022. "A dynamic physical-distancing model to evaluate spatial measures for prevention of Covid-19 spread," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 592(C).
    5. Bullini Orlandi, Ludovico & Veglianti, Eleonora & Zardini, Alessandro & Rossignoli, Cecilia, 2024. "Enhancing employees' remote work experience: Exploring the role of organizational job resources," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shehnaz Tehseen, T. Ramayah, Sulaiman Sajilan, 2017. "Testing and Controlling for Common Method Variance: A Review of Available Methods," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 4(2), pages 146-175, October.
    2. Queiroz, Maciel M. & Fosso Wamba, Samuel, 2019. "Blockchain adoption challenges in supply chain: An empirical investigation of the main drivers in India and the USA," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 70-82.
    3. Cho, Young Sik & Linderman, Kevin, 2019. "Metacognition-based process improvement practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 132-144.
    4. Tai-Yin Chiu & Hui-Ju K Chiang & Ruei-Yang Huang & Jie-Hong R Jiang & François Fages, 2015. "Synthesizing Configurable Biochemical Implementation of Linear Systems from Their Transfer Function Specifications," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-27, September.
    5. Fournier, Pierre-Luc & Chênevert, Denis & Jobin, Marie-Hélène, 2021. "The antecedents of physicians’ behavioral support for lean in healthcare: The mediating role of commitment to organizational change," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    6. Arsalan Najmi & Kanagi Kanapathy & Azmin A. Aziz, 2021. "Exploring consumer participation in environment management: Findings from two‐staged structural equation modelling‐artificial neural network approach," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 184-195, January.
    7. Dubey, Rameshwar & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Childe, Stephen J. & Papadopoulos, Thanos & Luo, Zongwei & Wamba, Samuel Fosso & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Can big data and predictive analytics improve social and environmental sustainability?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 534-545.
    8. Markku Maula & Wouter Stam, 2020. "Enhancing Rigor in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1059-1090, November.
    9. Munir, Manal & Jajja, Muhammad Shakeel Sadiq & Chatha, Kamran Ali & Farooq, Sami, 2020. "Supply chain risk management and operational performance: The enabling role of supply chain integration," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    10. Roland Helm & Martin Kloyer & Christin Aust, 2018. "R&D Collaboration Between Firms: Hard And Soft Antecedents Of Supplier Knowledge Sharing," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(01), pages 1-42, December.
    11. Aalto, Eero & Gustafsson, Robin, 2020. "Innovation Promotion Rationales and Impacts – A Review," ETLA Reports 99, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    12. Kovacs, Gyöngyi & Moshtari, Mohammad, 2019. "A roadmap for higher research quality in humanitarian operations: A methodological perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(2), pages 395-408.
    13. Uzir, Md Uzir Hossain & Al Halbusi, Hussam & Lim, Rodney & Jerin, Ishraq & Abdul Hamid, Abu Bakar & Ramayah, Thurasamy & Haque, Ahasanul, 2021. "Applied Artificial Intelligence and user satisfaction: Smartwatch usage for healthcare in Bangladesh during COVID-19," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Pankaj Tiwari & B Suresha, 2021. "Moderating Role of Project Innovativeness on Project Flexibility, Project Risk, Project Performance, and Business Success in Financial Services," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 22(3), pages 179-196, September.
    15. Rameshwar Dubey & Angappa Gunasekaran & Stephen J. Childe & Thanos Papadopoulos & Zongwei Luo & David Roubaud, 2020. "Upstream supply chain visibility and complexity effect on focal company’s sustainable performance: Indian manufacturers’ perspective," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 290(1), pages 343-367, July.
    16. Ali, Imran & Arslan, Ahmad & Chowdhury, Maruf & Khan, Zaheer & Tarba, Shlomo Y., 2022. "Reimagining global food value chains through effective resilience to COVID-19 shocks and similar future events: A dynamic capability perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1-12.
    17. Ferraris, Alberto & Degbey, William Y. & Singh, Sanjay Kumar & Bresciani, Stefano & Castellano, Sylvaine & Fiano, Fabio & Couturier, Jerome, 2022. "Microfoundations of Strategic Agility in Emerging Markets: Empirical Evidence of Italian MNEs in India," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    18. Yasar Abbas Ur Rehman & Muhammad Tariq & Omar Usman Khan, 2015. "Improved Object Localization Using Accurate Distance Estimation in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, November.
    19. Kim Hoe Looi, 2020. "Contextual Motivations for Undergraduates’ Entrepreneurial Intentions in Emerging Asian Economies," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 29(1), pages 53-87, March.
    20. Kaatz, Christopher & Brock, Christian & Figura, Lilli, 2019. "Are you still online or are you already mobile? – Predicting the path to successful conversions across different devices," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 10-21.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:132:y:2021:i:c:p:530-543. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.