An Introduction to Hierarchical Linear Modeling for Marketing Researchers

Organizations are hierarchical in nature. Specifically, individuals in the workplace are entrenched in work groups, which are entrenched in departments, which are entrenched in organizations, which are entrenched in the larger environment. Hence, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is a statistical technique available to researchers that is ideally suited for the study of cross-level issues. The purpose of this article is to provide marketing researchers with an overview and detailed description of HLM, as well as a practical illustration of HLM. Researchers in marketing, particularly those interested in the study of teams and cross-level research questions, should find HLM notably advantageous in their research due to the ability of HLM to simultaneously investigate relationships within a particular hierarchical level, as well as relationships between or across hierarchical levels. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]