Like β-hydride elimination, β-carbon elimination requires the metal to have an open coordination site cis to the alkyl group for this reaction to occur. β-carbon elimination is usually less favored than hydride elimination because the metal–hydride bond is stronger than the metal–carbon bond for most metals in catalytic reactions. The principles governing β-alkyl elimination are not well-established experimentally. One reason for this is that breaking C−C bonds in the presence of other reactive C−H bonds is a rare event, and systems designed to interrogate the reaction are more difficult to devise.