*Steric effects strain – Increasing the steric strain of the chelate backbone in square planar complexes pushes the carbonyl and methyl groups closer together, increasing the reactivity of insertion reactions.
*Oxidation state – Oxidation of the metal tends to increase insertion reaction rates. The main rate-limiting step in the mechanism is the migration of the methyl group onto a carbonyl ligand, oxidizing the metal by imparting a greater partial positive charge on the acetyl carbon, and thus increasing the rate of reaction.
*Lewis acids – Lewis acids also increase the reaction rates, for reasons similar to metal oxidation increasing the positive charge on the carbon. Lewis acids bind to the CO oxygen and remove charge, increasing the electrophilicity of the carbon. This can increase the reaction rate by a factor of up to 10, and the complex formed is stable enough that the reaction proceeds even without additional CO to bind to the metal.
*Electronegativity of the leaving group - Increasing the electronegativity of the leaving alkyl group stabilizes the metal-carbon bond interaction and thus increases the activation energy required for migration, decreasing the reaction rate.
*Trans-effect – Ligands in an octahedral or square planar complex are known to influence the reactivity of the group to which they are trans. This ligand influence is often referred to as the trans-influence, and it varies in intensity between ligands. A partial list of trans-influencing ligands is as follows, from highest trans-effect to lowest: aryl, alkyl > NR > PR > AsR > CO > Cl. Ligands with a greater trans-influence impart greater electrophilicity to the active site. Increasing the electrophilicity of the CO group has been shown experimentally to greatly increase the reaction rate, while decreasing the electrophilicity of the methyl group slightly increases the reaction rate. This can be demonstrated by reacting a square planar [(PN)M(CO)(CH)] complex with CO, where PN is a bidentate phosphorus- or nitrogen-bound ligand. This reaction proceeds in much greater yield when the methyl group is trans-P and the CO trans-N, owing to the higher trans-influence of the more electronegative nitrogen.