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This research article aims to systematically explore the association between digitalisation and individual investors’ behavioural biases. Through an extensive exploration of digitalisation modes and their various serviceable avenues in the investment arena, the study aims to elucidate the impact of behavioural biases on individual investors’ investment decision-making processes.

The study employs Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to gain insights into behavioural finance and the associated behavioural biases of investors in digitalisation. IPA, a qualitative method grounded in heuristic, phenomenological, and idiographic elements, facilitates the exploration of individual investor experiences and the role of digitalisation and behavioural biases within.

Investors are categorised into two groups – decision seekers and decision makers – based on their digital inclination and the purpose behind using digital tools. The attributes of these segments are detailed under the sub-themes of Digital Inclination, Market Cognizance, Sophistication and Maturity, Sophomorism and Perception of Digitalisation. The study also identifies the specific behavioural biases pertinent to each segment. Additionally, it introduces a novel section on the insights related to human emotions, behaviour and sentiment within financial markets.

The essence of the current article is the application of the IPA method to the field of behavioural finance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt of its kind which provides a methodical and comprehensive understanding of both, digitalisation and behavioural biases that affect the individual investor’s decision-making. It offers valuable insights for researchers, academicians and scholars in behavioural finance, enhancing the understanding of how behavioural biases influence investment decisions.

This study aims to systematically review various behavioral biases that impact an investor’s decision-making process. The prime objective of this paper is to thematically explore the behavioral bias literature and propose a comprehensive framework that can elucidate a more reasonable explanation of changes in financial markets and investors’ behavior.

Systematic literature review (SLR) methodology is applied to a portfolio of 71 peer-reviewed articles collected from different electronic databases between 2007 and 2021. Content analysis of the extant literature is performed to identify the research themes and existing gaps in the literature.

This research identifies publication trends of the behavioral biases literature and uncovers 24 different biases that impact individual investors’ decision-making. Through thematic analysis, an attribute–consequence–impact framework is proposed that explains different biases leading to individual investors’ irrationality. The study further proposes directions for future research by applying the theory–characteristics–context–methodology framework.

The results of this research will help scholars and practitioners in understanding the existence of various behavioral biases and assist them in identifying potential strategies which can evade the negative effects of these biases. The findings will further help the financial service providers to understand these biases and improve the landscape of financial services.

The essence of the current paper is the application of the SLR method on 24 biases in the area of behavioral finance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt of its kind which provides a methodical and comprehensive compilation of both cognitive and emotional behavioral biases that affect the individual investor’s decision-making.

This paper describes how financial professionals' behavioral biases influence their financial forecast and decision-making process. Most of the earlier studies are focused on well-developed financial markets, and little is researched about financial professionals, such as institutional investors, portfolio managers, investment advisors, financial analysts, etc., in emerging markets.

An expert-validated questionnaire measure four prominent behavioral biases and Indian financial professionals' rational decision-making process. The final sample consists of 274 valid responses using the purposive sampling technique. IBM SPSS and AMOS structural equation modeling (SEM) software are used to build measurement and structural models, multivariate analysis including regression, factor analysis, etc.

The results provide empirical insights into the relationship between behavioral biases and the decision-making process. The results suggest that the structural path model closely fits the sample data. The presence of behavioral biases indicates that financial professionals' forecasting and decision-making is not always rational but bounded rational or irrational due to these factors. Furthermore, these biases (except overconfidence bias) have a markedly significant and positive relationship with irrational decision-making.

It is critical to eradicate these psychological errors, but awareness and attentiveness toward behavioral biases may help financial professionals to make informed decisions. Investors can improve their portfolio decisions and investments by recognizing their judgment errors and focusing on specific investment strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases. It is necessary to incorporate behavioral insights while developing training techniques for financial professionals. Rules of thumb, visual tools, financial coaching and implementing social-cultural elements in training programs enable financial professionals to develop simple, engaging, appealing and customized approaches for their clients.

This novel study is the first of this kind of research that examines the relationship between financial professionals' behavioral biases and rational decision-making process. This study significantly and remarkably provides insights into irrationality in financial professionals' decision-making.

This paper aims to review the theory and empirical evidence of institutional investor behavioral biases in the lenses of behavioral finance paradigm. It surveys the research specifically focusing on behavioral biases among institutional investors in investment management activities worldwide.

A literature survey is done to gather and synthesize evidence on behavioral biases of institutional investors.

The survey and analysis reveal the following findings. First, the theoretical underpinning of investors’ irrational behavior has been neglected in behavioral finance research. Second, the behavioral heuristics and biases are dynamic and complex. Third, understanding behavioral biases’ origin, causes and effects requires interdisciplinary perspectives from the fields of psychology, sociology and biology.

The analysis and alternative perspectives drawn in this paper provide new insights into the field of behavioral finance and aims to suggest researchers, practitioners and regulators on the next course of actions.

This article aims to systematically review the literature published in recognized journals focused on cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management activities and market efficiency. It also includes some of the research work on the origins and foundations of behavioral finance, and how this has grown substantially to become an established and particular subject of study in its own right. The study also aims to provide future direction to the researchers working in this field.

For doing research synthesis, a systematic literature review (SLR) approach was applied considering research studies published within the time period, i.e. 1970–2021. This study attempted to accomplish a critical review of 176 studies out of 256 studies identified, which were published in reputable journals to synthesize the existing literature in the behavioral finance domain-related explicitly to cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management activities and market efficiency as well as on the origins and foundations of behavioral finance.

This review reveals that investors often use cognitive heuristics to reduce the risk of losses in uncertain situations, but that leads to errors in judgment; as a result, investors make irrational decisions, which may cause the market to overreact or underreact – in both situations, the market becomes inefficient. Overall, the literature demonstrates that there is currently no consensus on the usefulness of cognitive heuristics in the context of investment management activities and market efficiency. Therefore, a lack of consensus about this topic suggests that further studies may bring relevant contributions to the literature. Based on the gaps analysis, three major categories of gaps, namely theoretical and methodological gaps, and contextual gaps, are found, where research is needed.

The skillful understanding and knowledge of the cognitive heuristic-driven biases will help the investors, financial institutions and policymakers to overcome the adverse effect of these behavioral biases in the stock market. This article provides a detailed explanation of cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their influence on investment management activities and market efficiency, which could be very useful for finance practitioners, such as an investor who plays at the stock exchange, a portfolio manager, a financial strategist/advisor in an investment firm, a financial planner, an investment banker, a trader/broker at the stock exchange or a financial analyst. But most importantly, the term also includes all those persons who manage corporate entities and are responsible for making their financial management strategies.

Currently, no recent study exists, which reviews and evaluates the empirical research on cognitive heuristic-driven biases displayed by investors. The current study is original in discussing the role of cognitive heuristic-driven biases in investment management activities and market efficiency as well as the history and foundations of behavioral finance by means of research synthesis. This paper is useful to researchers, academicians, policymakers and those working in the area of behavioral finance in understanding the role that cognitive heuristic plays in investment management activities and market efficiency.

Investor risk perception is a personalized judgement on the uncertainty of returns pertaining to a financial instrument. This study identifies key psychological and demographic factors that influence risk perception. It also unravels the complex relationship between demographic attributes and investor's risk attitude towards equity investment.

Exploratory factor analysis is used to identify factors that define investor risk perception. Multiple regression is used to assess the relationship between demographic traits and factor groups. Kruskal–Wallis test is used to ascertain whether the factors extracted differ across demographic categories. A risk perception framework based on these findings is developed to provide deeper insight.

There is evidence of the relationship and influence of demographic factors on risk propensity and behavioural bias. From this study, it is apparent that return expectation, time horizon and loss aversion, which define the risk propensity construct, vary significantly based on demographic traits. Familiarity, overconfidence, anchoring and experiential biases which define the behavioural bias construct differ across demographic categories. These factors influence the risk perception of an individual with respect to equity investments.

The reference for the framework of this study is limited as there has been no precedence of similar work in academia.

This paper establishes that information seekers make rational decisions. The paper iterates the need for portfolio managers to develop and align investment strategies after evaluation of investors' risk by including these behavioural factors, this can particularly be advantageous during extreme volatility in markets that concedes the possibility of irrational decision making.

This study highlights that regulators need to acknowledge the investor's affective, cognitive and demographic impact on equity markets and align risk control measures that are conducive to market evolution. It also creates awareness among market participants that psychological factors and behavioural biases can have an impact on investment decisions.

This is the only study that looks at a three-dimensional perspective of the investor risk perception framework. The study presents the relationship between risk propensity, behavioural bias and demographic factors in the backdrop of “information” being the mediating variable. This paper covers five characteristics of risk propensity and eight behavioural biases, such a vast coverage has not been attempted within the academic realm earlier with the aforesaid perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how financial literacy and demographic variables (gender, age, income level, education, occupation, marital status and investment experience) related to behavioral biases.

The study uses one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), factor analysis and multiple regression analysis to examine survey data from more than 500 individual investors in India.

The results reveal the presence of different behavioral biases including overconfidence and self-attribution, the disposition effect, anchoring bias, representativeness, mental accounting, emotional biases and herding among Indian investors. Hence, the findings support the view that individual investors do not always act rationally. The results also show that financial literacy has a negative association with the disposition effect and herding bias, a positive relation with mental accounting bias, but no significant relation with overconfidence and emotional biases. Age, occupation and investment experience are the most important demographic variables that relate to the behavioral biases of individual investors in the sample. Regarding gender, males are more overconfident than are females about their knowledge of the stock market.

The study does not test for causality, only association between the variables. Thus, the findings in this study should not be interpreted as suggesting causality. The study may have implications for financial educators in promoting the financial awareness programs for individuals. Financial advisors can potentially become more effective by understanding their clients’ decision-making processes.

Despite an extensive literature on behavioral finance, limited academic research attempts to unravel the relation of how financial literacy and demographic variates relate to behavioral biases. This study contributes to this literature by trying to fill this gap.

The cognitive biases exhibited by investors could hinder their capacity for logical reasoning and impact their perception and reaction to information when making financial choices. So, this study was done to identify the behavioral biases that hinder investors' sound decision-making at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

A cross-sectional study was undertaken employing a causal research design approach. Questionnaires were administered to individual investors of the PSX as the data collection methodology. The data were subsequently analyzed through the utilization of the Smart PLS Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique.

The results suggest that information factors and cognitive biases, namely home bias, geographical bias, investor sentiment, salience, and over/under reaction have a positive association with the investors' choices at PSX.

The study’s emphasis is on the impact of behavioral biases on individual investors only, even though such biases also influence the investment decisions of institutional investors.

The study holds implications for scholars engaged in the field of behavioral finance as well as professionals involved in the stock market, particularly those interacting with individual investors and personal finance. Additionally, the current study will take into account investors, financial advisors, practitioners, policymakers, investment experts, stakeholders or target groups, etc. to support various groups in their professional activity and to help them overcome such biases that influence their sound decision-making power.

The innovative aspect of this research is its ability to advance the understanding of the conceptual underpinnings and social structure of behavioral biases by critically analyzing the body of prior research and adding value to the existing body of literature on behavioral finance in Pakistan by investigating the combined impact of never-studied variables, i.e. geographical bias and information variables, understudied behavioral variables, i.e. home bias and salience and studied variables, i.e. investor sentiment and over/under reaction on individual investor investment decisions at PSX.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of behavioral biases on investment decisions through a serial mediation of overconfidence and disposition effects.

The authors assess the behavioral biases affecting the investment decisions of life insurance policyholders through the serial mediation of overconfidence and disposition effects using a structured questionnaire. The study included 501 life insurance policyholders who were selected using a snowball sampling technique.

The results of this study revealed that behavioral biases influence the investment decisions of life insurance policyholders. The results also support the serial mediation model, where behavioral biases influence the investment decisions of life insurance policyholders via overconfidence and disposition effects.

This study makes a theoretical contribution to the field of behavioral finance by exploring the influences of behavioral biases on investment decisions. It also introduces overconfidence and disposition effects as serial mediators between behavioral biases and investment decisions. The study will be helpful for researchers, academicians and policymakers in the development of a more comprehensive model in the area of behavioral finance and in raising awareness regarding those biases among policyholders in order to improve their investment strategy.

This study has extended the ongoing simple mediation model by integrating overconfidence and disposition effects in a serial mediation model between behavioral biases and investment decisions. The study will contribute to the area of behavioral finance, as it is the first time this particular study has been conducted according to the authors’ knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to study and describe several biases in investment decision-making through the review of research articles in the area of behavioral finance. It also includes some of the analytical and foundational work and how this has progressed over the years to make behavioral finance an established and specific area of study. The study includes behavioral patterns of individual investors, institutional investors and financial advisors.

The research papers are analyzed on the basis of searching the keywords related to behavioral finance on various published journals, conference proceedings, working papers and some other published books. These papers are collected over a period of year’s right from the time when the most introductory paper was published (1979) that contributed this area a basic foundation till the most recent papers (2016). These articles are segregated into biases wise, year-wise, country-wise and author wise. All research tools that have been used by authors related to primary and secondary data have also been included into our table.

A new era of understanding of human emotions, behavior and sentiments has been started which was earlier dominated by the study of financial markets. Moreover, this area is not only attracting the, attention of academicians but also of the various corporates, financial intermediaries and entrepreneurs thus adding to its importance. The study is more inclined toward the study of individual and institutional investors and financial advisors’ investors but the behavior of intermediaries through which some of them invest should be focused upon, narrowing down population into various variables, targeting the expanding economies to reap some unexplained theories. This study has identified 17 different types of biases and also summarized in the form of tables.

The study is based on some of the most recent findings to have a quick overview of the latest work carried out in this area. So far very few extensive review papers have been published to highlight the research work in the area of behavioral finance. This study will be helpful for new researches in this field and to identify the areas where possible work can be done.

Practical implication of the research is that companies, policymakers and issuers of securities can watch out of investors’ interest before issuing securities into the market.

Under the Social Implication, investors can recognize several behavioral biases, take sound investment decisions and can also minimize their risk.

The essence of this paper is the identification of 17 types of biases and the literature related to them. The study is based on both, the literature on investment decisions and the biases in investment decision-making. Such study is less prevalent in the developing country like India. This paper does not only focus on the basic principles of behavioral finance but also explain some emerging concepts and theories of behavioral finance. Thus, the paper generates interest in the readers to find the solutions to minimize the effect of biases in decision-making.