A knowledge of the factors determining the magnitude of the bond dissociation enthalpy (BDE) is of importance to the advancement of theoretical organometallic chemistry and from the practical standpoint. The central atom and the substituents bound to it influence the BDE values; however, the interplay between the BDE and the substituent effects remains unknown. In this work, the literature data on substituent influence on the BDE of lithium, sodium, copper, silver, mercury, aluminium, gallium, silicon, germanium, tin, lead, phosphorus, antimonium, chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, rhodium, and iridium compounds (37 series) have been analyzed, using the correlation analysis. Generally, the BDE values were first established to depend on the joint influence of the inductive, resonance, polarizability, and steric effects of substituents. The contribution of the polarizability effect ranges up to about 40%. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.