First Thoughts Interpretation of b is analogous to the interpretation of b , except that b expresses change in standard score form. Some researchers use the relative magnitude of b to indicate relative importance of the independent variables. The magnitude of b reflects the presumed effect of the variable but also the variances and covariances of other variables in the model - As well as variances of variables not in the model. It cannot be used for the purpose of generalizations across settings and populations.
Unstandardized coefficients translate more directly into guides for policy decisions.
Beware though of changing the unit of measure, and the fact that many independent variables are not on an interval scale. Recall the formula for the standardized coefficient. Note that the value of b is dependent of the ratio of the standard deviations. So if two researchers were to collect data on the same predictors with one collecting over a small range and the other over a larger range, they may end up with b s that are very different in size. And they may come to different conclusions about the relative contributions of the variables.