Hi all,

I just presented my research in a doctoral conference this morning. My research is about confirming relationship between variables using SEM. The hypotheses are like this:
H1: A —> Satisfaction
H2: B —> Satisfaction
H3: C —> Satisfaction
H4: D —> Satisfaction

One other student asked me why I did not hypothesise the relationship between C and D. I did not know what to answer. Then I have tested using the data that I have, and found that C relates D. But actually, even if they are related, this hypothesis is not important in my research as the aim of my research is to find what make customer satisfied with the product/service.

I am not sure if this is a convinced answer.

Thank you

If you are asking about how to respond to a random question like that at a conference, use the good old answer; "That is a very good question, we have not considered it but it would be outside the scope of this project which was to look at ...." Or something like that. It is impossible to do everything as part of your project, so it is acceptable to acknowledge their point and say it is outside of scope or say you will investigate it at a later date.