Hello all,

I am currently writing my thesis and testing some hypotheses. With one of my hypotheses, I want to test whether employee satisfaction (M) has a moderating effect on firm performance (Y) in heterogeneous M&A transactions (X). The variables are all metric scaled.

In a previously conducted simple as well as multiple regression analysis in which I examine the effect of heterogeneity in the context of M&A transactions (X) on firm performance (Y), there is a positive effect of X on Y, but it is not significant.

However, when I include employee satisfaction as a moderator in my analysis, according to the analysis, there is a significant effect of X on Y & a slightly significant interaction effect + confidence interval is between - 0.011 and 0.145.

How can I interpret that the previously non-significant effect of X on Y (simple linear /multiple regression) is significant when moderated.

Or statistically due to the non-significant effect I may not even examine moderation in my regression analysis?

Thanks a lot for your help!