Determinants of Purchase Decision: a PLS-SEM Analysis of Location, Personal Selling, and Price Perception of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Bekasi Regency

Abstract

This study examines how location, personal selling, and price perception influence consumers’ purchase decision using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The empirical dataset contains 50 questionnaire responses measured on a five-point Likert scale with reflective indicators (five items per construct). Measurement quality was assessed through outer loadings, internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability), convergent validity (average variance extracted, AVE), and discriminant validity (Fornell-Larcker and HTMT). Structural relationships were estimated with standardized path coefficients and tested using nonparametric bootstrapping (5,000 resamples). The model explains 37.2% of the variance in purchase decision (R² = 0.372) and shows positive but statistically non-significant effects for location (β = 0.240), personal selling (β = 0.240), and price perception (β = 0.252). Predictive relevance was supported (Q² = 0.183). The findings indicate that, within this dataset, the three drivers move in the expected direction but additional variance or larger samples may be required to detect significance