Search results

1 – 10 of over 3000
Article
Publication date: 26 July 2021

Shagufta Parveen, Zoya Wajid Satti, Qazi Abdul Subhan, Nishat Riaz, Samreen Fahim Baber and Taqadus Bashir

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

2839

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have assessed investors' behaviors and sentiments and the stock market overreaction during COVID-19 using a questionnaire and collected data from 401 investors trading in the PSX.

Findings

Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected investors' behaviors, investment decisions and trade volume. It created feelings of fear and uncertainty among market participants. Evidence suggests that behavioral heuristics and biases, including representative heuristic, anchoring heuristic, overconfidence bias and disposition effect, negatively influenced investors' decisions at the PSX.

Research limitations/implications

This study will contribute to behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries as it has revealed the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock market, and its results are generalizable to other emerging stock markets.

Practical implications

The findings of this study will help academicians, researchers and policymakers of developing countries. Academicians can formulate new behavioral models that can depict the solutions of dealing with an uncertain situation like COVID-19. Policymakers like the Securities Exchange Commission and the PSX can formulate crisis management strategies based on behavioral finance concepts to cope with situations like COVID-19 in the future and help lessen investors' losses in the stock markets. The role of the Securities Exchange Commission is crucial as it regulates the financial markets. It can arrange workshops to educate investors to manage their decisions during crisis time and focus on the best use of irrational and rational decision-making at the same time using Lo (2004) adaptive market hypothesis.

Originality/value

The novelty of the paper is that the authors have introduced overconfidence and disposition effect as mediators that create a connection between representative and anchoring heuristics and investment decisions using primary data collected from investors (institutional and retail) to demonstrate the presence of psychological biases during COVID-19, and it has been done for the first time according to authors' knowledge. It is a contribution and addition to the behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries' stock markets and their efficiency.

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. 39 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2054-6238

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 January 2012

Valeed Ahmad Ansari and Soha Khan

This paper aims to examine the presence of momentum profit in the Indian stock market and seeks to explore the sources of momentum profit employing both risk based and behavioral…

2337

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the presence of momentum profit in the Indian stock market and seeks to explore the sources of momentum profit employing both risk based and behavioral models. R2, idiosyncratic volatility, and delay measures are employed in order to test behavioral models.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper follows Jegadeesh and Timan's methodology in constructing momentum portfolios.

Findings

The study finds strong presence of momentum profits in India during 1995‐2006. The risk based models such as CAPM and Fama‐French fail to account for the phenomenon. Idiosyncratic risk exhibits a positive relation with momentum, lending support to behavioural factors as source of momentum phenomenon.

Practical implications

In forming portfolios, selecting the stocks which have been winners in the last three and six months can help investors and fund mangers earn substantial profit.

Originality/value

The study employs behavioral variables to explain the momentum phenomenon. In the Indian context it is an unexplored area.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 38 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 December 2018

Paul Manning

The global financial crisis (GFC) has undermined the legitimacy of orthodox neo-classical economic assumptions, which nevertheless continue to frame the philosophical assumptions…

Abstract

Purpose

The global financial crisis (GFC) has undermined the legitimacy of orthodox neo-classical economic assumptions, which nevertheless continue to frame the philosophical assumptions of teaching in business schools. The purpose of this paper is to make a case in favour of an expansion of the business school curriculum to incorporate behavioural economics. The paper will also contend that behavioural economics can be connected to social economics, as they are both heterodox in this study and analyse economic phenomenon outside of a neo-classical framework. The aim is to contribute to arguments for an expanded curriculum, beyond the framing assumptions of neo-classical rationalism. This paper will also support its case by reviewing behavioural economics to make the case that this literature can be connected to social economics. This assertion is based on shared connections, including the importance of Kantianism in behavioural economics and in social economics. These connections will be discussed as a common point of reference points, or ties that can serve to broker links between these two economic paradigms. Practical implications (if applicable) the GFC presents an opportunity to re-shape the business school curriculum to acknowledge the centrality of socio-economics and behavioural economics, and consequently to offer an alternative to the dominant ontological assumptions – taken from the economic understanding of rationality – that have previously underpinned business school pedagogy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents an inter-disciplinary teaching case, which incorporates socio-economic and behavioural economics perspectives. The teaching case concerned a socio-economic understanding of corruption and white-collar crime. It was also inter-disciplinary to include inputs from business history and criminology. The teaching case developed an appreciation among students that corruption, white-collar crime and entrepreneurship can be analysed within a social economics and behavioural economics lens.

Findings

The teaching case example discussed an alternative socio-economic and behavioural economics understanding to core areas of the MBA curriculum with the potential to be included in other academic disciplines. This enabled students to apply a behavioural economic approach to white-collar crime. The findings derived from this case study are that behavioural economics has the potential to enhance the teaching of socio-economics.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper is to apply behavioural economics to a socio-economic teaching case, in core subject areas of the MBA curriculum.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 December 2018

Paul Manning

The global financial crisis (GFC) undermined the legitimacy of orthodox economic assumptions, which nevertheless continue to frame business school pedagogy. In consequence, there…

Abstract

Purpose

The global financial crisis (GFC) undermined the legitimacy of orthodox economic assumptions, which nevertheless continue to frame business school pedagogy. In consequence, there is an opportunity for socio-economic insights to be more fully incorporated into the business school curriculum. This paper reports and reflects on a socio-economic case study that was delivered to MBA students. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the developing literature on behavioural economics (BE) has the potential to enhance students’ social economic understanding of key areas of the curriculum.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents an inter-disciplinary socio-economic teaching case that was informed by insights from BE. The teaching case concerned a socio-economic understanding of corruption and white-collar crime. It was also inter-disciplinary to include inputs from business history and criminology. The aim of the teaching case was to develop an appreciation among students that corruption and white-collar crime can be analysed within a social economics lens.

Findings

The teaching case example discussed in this paper offered an alternative socio-economic understanding to core areas of the MBA curriculum, enabling students to apply a behavioural economic approach to corruption and more generally to white-collar crime. The findings derived from this case study are that behavioural economics has the potential to enhance the teaching of socio-economics.

Practical implications

The GFC presents an opportunity to re-shape the business school curriculum to acknowledge the centrality of socio-economics and consequently to offer an alternative to the dominant ontological assumptions – taken from the economic understanding of rationality – that have previously under-pinned business school pedagogy.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper is to apply BE to a socio-economic teaching case studies in core subject areas of the MBA curriculum.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 46 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2018

Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Maqsood Ahmad and Faisal Mahmood

This paper aims to clarify the mechanism by which heuristics influences the investment decisions of individual investors, actively trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)…

10525

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to clarify the mechanism by which heuristics influences the investment decisions of individual investors, actively trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), and the perceived efficiency of the market. Most studies focus on well-developed financial markets and very little is known about investors’ behaviour in less developed financial markets or emerging markets. The present study contributes to filling this gap in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Investors’ heuristic biases have been measured using a questionnaire, containing numerous items, including indicators of speculators, investment decisions and perceived market efficiency variables. The sample consists of 143 investors trading on the PSX. A convenient, purposively sampling technique was used for data collection. To examine the relationship between heuristic biases, investment decisions and perceived market efficiency, hypotheses were tested by using correlation and regression analysis.

Findings

The paper provides empirical insights into the relationship of heuristic biases, investment decisions and perceived market efficiency. The results suggest that heuristic biases (overconfidence, representativeness, availability and anchoring) have a markedly negative impact on investment decisions made by individual investors actively trading on the PSX and on perceived market efficiency.

Research limitations/implications

The primary limitation of the empirical review is the tiny size of the sample. A larger sample would have given more trustworthy results and could have empowered a more extensive scope of investigation.

Practical implications

The paper encourages investors to avoid relying on heuristics or their feelings when making investments. It provides awareness and understanding of heuristic biases in investment management, which could be very useful for decision makers and professionals in financial institutions, such as portfolio managers and traders in commercial banks, investment banks and mutual funds. This paper helps investors to select better investment tools and avoid repeating expensive errors, which occur due to heuristic biases. They can improve their performance by recognizing their biases and errors of judgment, to which we are all prone, resulting in a more efficient market. So, it is necessary to focus on a specific investment strategy to control “mental mistakes” by investors, due to heuristic biases.

Originality/value

The current study is the first of its kind, focusing on the link between heuristics, individual investment decisions and perceived market efficiency within the specific context of Pakistan.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Jin Zhang, Ming Ren, Xian Xiao and Jilong Zhang

The purpose of this paper is to find a representative subset from large-scale online reviews for consumers. The subset is significantly small in size, but covers the majority…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find a representative subset from large-scale online reviews for consumers. The subset is significantly small in size, but covers the majority amount of information in the original reviews and contains little redundant information.

Design/methodology/approach

A heuristic approach named RewSel is proposed to successively select representatives until the number of representatives meets the requirement. To reveal the advantages of the approach, extensive data experiments and a user study are conducted on real data.

Findings

The proposed approach has the advantage over the benchmarks in terms of coverage and redundancy. People show preference to the representative subsets provided by RewSel. The proposed approach also has good scalability, and is more adaptive to big data applications.

Research limitations/implications

The paper contributes to the literature of review selection, by proposing a heuristic approach which achieves both high coverage and low redundancy. This study can be applied as the basis for conducting further analysis of large-scale online reviews.

Practical implications

The proposed approach offers a novel way to select a representative subset of online reviews to facilitate consumer decision making. It can also enhance the existing information retrieval system to provide representative information to users rather than a large amount of results.

Originality/value

The proposed approach finds the representative subset by adopting the concept of relative entropy and sentiment analysis methods. Compared with state-of-the-art approaches, it offers a more effective and efficient way for users to handle a large amount of online information.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 41 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

Philip A. Wickham

The representativeness heuristic generates a decision‐bias encouraging over‐estimation of the probability of low likelihood events when they are associated with strongly context…

6069

Abstract

The representativeness heuristic generates a decision‐bias encouraging over‐estimation of the probability of low likelihood events when they are associated with strongly context representative propositions. An experimental investigation into decision making by final year business undergraduates demonstrates that this heuristic operates and consistently affects subjects’ judgement of the probability of probe details about an entrepreneur in the representativeness‐generating context of the future success or failure of a proposed venture by that entrepreneur. The results suggest that the representativeness heuristic could hinder the quality of managerial decision making, especially decisions involving investment in new ventures. Evidence is generated in favour of a specifically cognitive source for this bias as opposed to a semantic mechanism proposed by some workers. This study adds to the growing literature on the representativeness bias in managerial decision making but is believed to be the first to consider it in an entrepreneurial context.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 41 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 March 2021

Nektarios Gavrilakis and Christos Floros

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether heuristic and herding biases influence portfolio construction and performance in Greece. The current research determines the…

2403

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether heuristic and herding biases influence portfolio construction and performance in Greece. The current research determines the situation among investors in Greece, a country with several economic problems for the last decade.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey has been conducted covering a group of active private investors. The relationship between private investors' behavior and portfolio construction and performance was tested using a multiple regression.

Findings

The authors find that heuristic variable affects private investor's portfolio construction and performance satisfaction level positively. A robustness test on a second group, consisting of professional investors, reveals that heuristic and herding biases affect investment behavior when constructing a portfolio.

Practical implications

The authors recommend investors to select professional's investment portfolio tools in constructing investment portfolios and avoid excessive errors, which occur due to heuristic. The awareness and understanding of heuristic and herding could be helpful for professionals and decision-makers in financial institutions by improving their performance resulting in more efficient markets.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this paper lies in the fact that it is the first study on two major behavioral dimensions that affect the investor's portfolio construction and performance in Greece. The rationale of the current research is that the results are helpful for investors in order to take rational, reliable and profitable decisions.

Details

Review of Behavioral Finance, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1940-5979

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2022

Maqsood Ahmad

This article aims to systematically review the literature published in recognized journals focused on cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management…

2574

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Practical implications

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 February 2021

Imran Khan, Mustafa Afeef, Shahid Jan and Anjum Ihsan

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of heuristic biases, namely, availability bias and representativeness bias on investors’ investment decisions in the…

2423

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of heuristic biases, namely, availability bias and representativeness bias on investors’ investment decisions in the Pakistan stock exchange, as well as the moderating role of long-term orientation.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a structured questionnaire, a total of 374 responses have been collected from individual investors trading in PSX. The relationship was tested by applying the partial least square structural equation model using SmartPLS 3.2.2. Further, Henseler and Chin’s (2010) product indicator approach for moderation analysis was applied to the data set.

Findings

The results revealed that availability bias and representativeness bias have a significant and positive influence on the investment decisions of investors. Furthermore, a significant moderating effect of long term orientation on the effect of representativeness bias on investment decision is observed. This suggests that investors’ long term orientation weaken the effect of representativeness bias on investment decision. However, no significant moderating effect was observed for availability bias.

Originality/value

The paper provides novel insights on the role of heuristic-driven biases on the investment decisions of individual investors in the stock market. Particularly, it enhanced the understanding of behavioral aspects of investment decision-making in an emerging market.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 3000