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1 – 5 of 5Various research studies in the past have found biological gender to be a differentiator for money attitudes. However, the beliefs and attitudes that people have towards money can…
Abstract
Purpose
Various research studies in the past have found biological gender to be a differentiator for money attitudes. However, the beliefs and attitudes that people have towards money can also be the result of the gender socialisation, which may have a greater impact on how one relates to money. Since, gender is an important aspect for understanding financial choices and decisions, it becomes pertinent to learn as to which aspect of gender, the biological or the psychological, impact the money attitudes and beliefs that a person holds. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical work attempts to understand gender differences in money attitudes from the biological gender and psychological gender perspective. The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and Tang's money ethic scale (MES) were used for this study. The hypotheses raised were tested on a sample of 224 respondents from India.
Findings
The results suggested that money attitudes can be better understood when seen from the lens of psychological gender and not biological gender. Further, androgyny individuals were found to exhibit more balance in their money attitude dimensions than masculine or feminine individuals.
Originality/value
Belief and attitudes towards money would impact how contented people are with the compensation they receive, their financial planning choices and also their financial well-being. This insightful study adds to the scant literature that exists on understanding money attitudes from psychological gender perspective and would pave the way for more work in this area.
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Shalini Kalra Sahi and Ashok Pratap Arora
Indian investors have been exposed to a plethora of investment opportunities in the past decade and a half, after the liberalization process which commenced in 1991. Over the…
Abstract
Purpose
Indian investors have been exposed to a plethora of investment opportunities in the past decade and a half, after the liberalization process which commenced in 1991. Over the years, the increased competition has brought a wind of change, not just in the economic environment within the country, but also a radical change in the choices and preferences of the financial consumers. In the endeavor to provide more personalized advice to the financial consumers, financial service providers need more insights into the minds of the consumers. However, little work has been done to understand the Indian individual investor. The purpose of this paper is to study the Individual investor in India: to segment the investor into distinct behavioural groups based on their biases; to understand the investment preferences and profile of the identified segments; and to understand the implications for financial services providers.
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory research, using In‐depth interviews, was undertaken to explore the manifestations of the biases among the individual investors. The initial inventory of 97 items pertaining to biases was assessed for content and face validity and subject to pilot test and subsequent rounds of modification. The final data were collected on a sample of 377 respondents, using a questionnaire that captured eight biases: Reliance on experts; Overconfidence bias; Self‐control bias; Categorisation tendency; Budgeting tendency; Adaptive tendency; Socially responsible investing bias; and Spouse effect. The segments of investor biases were identified using cluster analysis.
Findings
A cluster analysis of data, collected from individual investors was conducted in India (n=377), yielded four main segments of individual investors biases, which have been termed as the Novice Learner, the Competent Confirmer, the Cautious Anticipator and the Efficient Planner. This typology has predictive validity with regard to financial satisfaction and perceived financial market knowledge.
Practical implications
The paper presents a very important practical tool which can help financial service providers define their target audience more sharply and understand how people in these segments differ, behaviorally. Better understanding of investor's perceptions would help in designing more attractive financial products and development of marketing strategies that would impact the customer's financial satisfaction levels and create trust and customer loyalty.
Originality/value
This paper is a first of its kind to empirically identify the segments of biased behavior among investors and contributes to furthering the understanding on investor behavior.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of demographic and socioeconomic factors on the financial satisfaction of the individual investors in India, who belong to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of demographic and socioeconomic factors on the financial satisfaction of the individual investors in India, who belong to the urban socio‐economic classification segment‐A.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a sample of 374 individual investors, one‐way ANOVA, t‐test and correlation was conducted to find out which demographic and socio‐economic variables were associated with the individual's financial satisfaction levels.
Findings
The results of the research showed that factors such as age, marital status, occupation, work‐experience, income, saving rate, nature of household accommodation and investment tenure, impact the individual's financial satisfaction levels.
Practical implications
With the increase in the household income levels in India as a result of the tremendous growth and expansion that the Indian economy has witnessed over the last decade, there has been a growth in the demand for financial planning and wealth management services too. The purpose of financial advisory services is to understand the clients' behaviour and needs and accordingly provide advice on the various aspects of financial planning and wealth management. The findings of the study have implications for policy makers and financial service providers.
Originality/value
Though, the demographic and socio‐economic correlates of financial satisfaction have been extensively researched in the literature, there has been scant empirical research on the Indian financial consumer. This study fills this gap and is the first of its kind on the Indian Individual investor.
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Shalini Kalra Sahi, Nand Dhameja and Ashok Pratap Arora
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of a post hoc predictive segmentation procedure to find out the variables that are the most important predictors of investor's…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of a post hoc predictive segmentation procedure to find out the variables that are the most important predictors of investor's preference for specific financial investment products.
Design/methodology/approach
The study considers various demographic, socio‐economic and psychographic variables for the purpose of understanding the investor's preferences. Using a sample of individual investors (n=377), a classification and regression tree (CART) methodology was used to determine whether psychographic variables were better predictors than demographic and socio‐economic variables for understanding an individual investor's preference for the investment alternatives.
Findings
The results showed that psychographic variables emerged as the most important predictors in the case of investment products with greater degree of risk, and the demographic and socio‐economic variables emerged as the most important for the investment instruments with lesser degree of risk. However, when the sample was divided based on occupation profile (government and non‐government), for both the fixed returns based instruments and the non‐fixed instruments, psychographic variables emerged as the most important predictors.
Practical implications
These results show the need for financial service providers to consider the psychographic variables along with demographic and socio‐economic variables, so as to better understand and advise the financial consumers. This would enable the financial service institutions to target their audience more sharply, so as to develop appropriate marketing strategies and further build the investor's trust.
Originality/value
This paper is a first of its kind to empirically identify the most important variable that determines the financial consumer's preference for investment products in India, using CART technique. This study contributes to furthering the understanding of investor behavior.
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The purpose of this paper is to present a review as well as a synthesis of the extant literature in the field of Neurofinance. The paper has been divided into eight parts. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a review as well as a synthesis of the extant literature in the field of Neurofinance. The paper has been divided into eight parts. The first and second parts introduce the paper and dwell upon the brain functions in financial decisions. Part three presents the origin of Neurofinance and part four explains the difference between traditional finance, behavioural finance and neurofinance. Part five and six of the paper look into the research studies in Neurofinance and their application. Part seven gives a brief discussion on the limitations of neurofinance studies and part eight gives the conclusion.
Design/methodology/approach
The existing body of academic literature pertinent to the domain of Neurofinance was reviewed so as to provide an integrated portrayal and synthesis of the current level of knowledge in this field. This paper covers the insights on the subject for developing a deeper understanding of the investor's psychology.
Findings
Neurofinance is a very young discipline. It tries to relate the brain processes to the investment behaviour. Most of the researches in the domain of neurofinance focus on trading behaviour. It would be interesting to explore the workings of the brain for other investment behaviours too like personal financial planning decisions, etc.
Originality/value
Neurofinance is emerging as an alternate field of study and practice and this paper is an attempt to look at the development of Neurofinance and its role in developing a better understanding of the investor behaviour.
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