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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether financial consumers are sensitive to presentational format of financial disclosure documents and whether this influences the financial attractiveness of products.

In order to observe and measure consumers’ attention, the authors exploit the unobtrusive methodology of eye tracking on a sample of nonprofessional investors, applying an ecological protocol, through a cross-sectional design.

The analysis reveals that financial information processing and attention distribution are influenced by the way the information is conveyed. Moreover, some layouts induce individuals to rate the products as less financially attractive, independent of the information content. This suggests the importance of studying the neural mechanisms of investors’ behaviour in the scrutiny of financial product documents.

The results lead to recommend regulators and managers to study how investors respond to financial disclosure documents by exploiting neuroscientific techniques. Moreover, there is a role for the search of any benefit coming from emphasising specific sources of information inside documents.

This research investigates the influence of presentational format on consumers’ information processing measuring the underlying neurophysiological processes; the consequent perception of financial attractiveness is also explored.

This study investigates whether colors red or blue in financial disclosure documents (Key Investor Information Documents – KIIDs) affect attention distribution toward the visual stimulus and the perception of financial attractiveness of the products.

In order to observe and measure financial consumers' visual attention, the unobtrusive methodology of eye-tracking is used on a sample of nonprofessional investors, applying an ecological protocol, through a cross-sectional design.

Financial information processing and visual attention distribution are influenced by the color of the KIID document, as red seems to attract attention, proxied by gazing behavior, more than blue. Red color, compared to blue, is also observed to push investors to rate the products as less financially attractive, especially when the product Risk Reward Profile is high.

The findings highlight the role of the basic visual properties of documents conveying financial information, prompting to investigate the unconscious and automatic mechanisms of individual's attention and its influence on decision making.

Using the eye-tracking tool, this study bridges neuroscience, color research, marketing and finance and provides new knowledge on the underlying neural mechanisms of financial consumers' behavior.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are increasingly prominent in the current agendas of firms, regulatory agencies and consumers worldwide. It is vital for banks to understand how consumers perceive CSR activities, as such activities strengthen their brand equity building. This study examines the relationship between financial consumers’ perceptions of banks’ CSR initiatives and brand equity, identifying a mediating influence of consumer trust and satisfaction.

The survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to Italian banking consumers (941 valid responses). The research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.

Our analysis reveals that consumers’ perceptions of banks’ CSR initiatives directly affect brand equity. Moreover, trust and satisfaction positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ perceptions of CSR initiatives and brand equity in the Italian banking industry.

These findings advance understanding by making a novel contribution to the literature; they also have managerial implications. In terms of literature advancement, we provide new evidence related to a context with specific features, namely Italy. From a managerial perspective, this study highlights the importance of informing Italian customers about and promoting awareness of sustainable activities. In turn, client perceptions affect the banks’ value.

Graphs are widely used in the banking and finance domain to support consumers’ decision-making process, but subjects differ in their ability to understand them. This study aims to detect the determinants of the ability to read and process financial information conveyed in the graphical format, i.e. financial graph literacy (FGL) and the relationship between FGL and subjects’ actual financial behavior (FB).

Data are collected by administering a structured questionnaire to the Italian adult population (n = 502). The survey includes different sections aimed at collecting information about sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables, financial literacy and FB. The econometric analyses are developed using OLS and Poisson regressions.

The results show that gender, geographical area, education, marital status and income are crucial determinants of FGL. Moreover, the analysis reveals that an increase in the FGL indicator is associated with a higher propensity for individuals to purchase banking or financial products or actively manage financial resources; results are robust, even controlling for financial knowledge.

Although previous research investigates the impact of graphs in financial decision-making, no studies measure the ability of consumers to read and interpret financial information conveyed in the graphical format. This study is the first to investigate the determinants of FGL and link it to actual FB. Implications for policymakers, regulatory and supervisory authorities and financial intermediaries are discussed.

This study aims to investigate the drivers of bank automation system performance expectancy compared to that of bank employees. The purpose is to shed light on the role played by consumers' cognitive schema on automation that is the perfect automation schema (PAS).

A survey was administered to about 500 Italian subjects to measure their PAS; financial knowledge, anxiety, and security; and sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables. Ordered probit regressions and an instrumental variable two-stage least squares regression are run.

The analyses reveal that cognitive schemas play a crucial role in consumer expectations in banking. Individuals with stronger PAS tend to have more positive expectations about bank automation performance compared to employee performance. Financial anxiety and knowledge positively affect bank automation performance expectancy while women, older people, and financially insecure subjects have poor expectations of automated banking systems.

This study extends the understanding of key consumer characteristics that affect bank automation performance expectancy compared to that of bank employees in services delivery in the Italian context. Moreover, it provides useful results for researchers, practitioners, banking institutions, and regulators.

This study aims to systematically review the literature on digital consumers’ decision-making in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector and proposes an integrative framework.

By combining databases such as Web of Science and Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO), we identified, analyzed and synthesized 53 peer-reviewed empirical articles that explore the connection between digital solutions in the BFSI sector and various phases and constructs of the consumer decision-making process. We examined the dependent variables (DVs) used to operationalize consumer decision-making, performed a thematic analysis of the papers and proposed an integrative framework.

The reviewed articles have garnered more attention from marketing researchers than from BFSI or artificial intelligence scholars, often employing traditional behavioral and experimental methodologies that have several limitations. We identified 38 DVs used to operationalize consumer decision-making, with the most frequently recurring constructs being “Intention to use,” “Utilization,” “Satisfaction,” “Perceived usefulness” and “Trust.” We propose an integrative framework that groups these DVs into three main clusters: subjects’ perceptions, user experience and adoption/usage choice. This systematic literature review highlights the increasing importance of emotion in recent decades and underscores the difficulty of establishing a framework where relationships between variables are direct and unidirectional, as traditional economic theories assume.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the DVs and the research methods used to study the impact of recent digital solutions on consumer decision-making in the BFSI sector. Further, a framework is proposed that can offer a new perspective for consumer research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how the innovation performance of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that collect funds using equity crowdfunding (EC), i.e. creators (or proponents), and the EC performance are influenced by the social media networks (SMNs) in which EC platforms' managers and firms exchange their ideas with investors and customers.

The empirical analysis is conducted on a sample composed by all the creators that collected funds in EC platforms over the three-year period 2018–2020. For each creator, the innovation performance is computed as the percentage of sales from new or significantly improved product and services compared to total sales of firm. For each campaign, the EC performance is considered as the ratio between the total amount of funding raised at the end of the campaign and the target capital for the campaign. To investigate EC platform social media activity, LinkedIn profiles of EC platforms managers are analyzed using the social network analysis (SNA) methodology, which permits to observe the quantity and the quality of managers' interactions with other users. A regression analysis is thus performed to observe the relationship between managers' LinkedIn activities, EC performance and creators' innovation performance.

Data reveal that EC platforms managers display different activities in networking, with some individuals more active than others and more oriented to interact with business profiles rather than personal ones. The variables related to managers' LinkedIn activities are shown to impact both on the EC performance and on the ability of creators to innovate, suggesting the existence of a link between creators, EC platforms and the activity of the subject who manages it.

The present study is the first to examine the link between the ability of creators to innovate and SMNs, focusing on the social links of platforms managers and considering the LinkedIn social media; moreover, the analysis is conducted analyzing the quality of the interactions in addition to their number. The study is original also in that rather than focusing on specific EC platforms it considers all those purposefully authorized by the Italian financial market supervisory authority over a three-year time span. From a managerial point of view, the observation of the relevance of social networks by personnel with specific professional skills reveals it can be a successful driver for operators in the sector, not only to safeguard their reputation, but to stimulate the processes of co-creation of value that is essential in the crowdfunding market.