(Hamza, 2019 Financial Literacy Investment
(Hamza, 2019 Financial Literacy Investment
(Hamza, 2019 Financial Literacy Investment
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Imtiaz Arif1
Iqra University, Karachi, Pakistan
Abstract
The study examines the impact of financial literacy on investment decisions with the
mediating effect of personality traits based on the big-five model. A total of 235 respons-
es from Karachi were collected using the convenience sampling technique. The five-point
Likert scale questionnaire was used alongside the Smart-PLS software for data analysis.
The results suggest that financial literacy did not have a significant effect on investment
decisions through agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion. However, financial
literacy has a significant negative impact on investment decisions through openness to
experience and a significant positive impact through neuroticism. The study helps improve
our understanding of investor behavior by considering the mediating role of big five per-
sonality traits on the relationship between financial literacy and investment decisions. It is
recommended that financial institutions should provide investment counseling services to
prospective investors using the consumer profile technique.
Introduction
Behavioral finance suggests that individuals exhibit cognitive and affective behavior
which leads to deviation from rational behavior. The field of behavioral finance is based
on the application of human psychology in finance. In the past, finance researchers did
not consider how individual and environmental factors could affect investor decision
making (Xiao & Porto, 2017; Sivaramakrishnan, Srivastava, & Rastogi, 2017). Therefore, this
Corresponding Author: Dr. Imtiaz Arif; Email: [email protected]
1
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study focuses on the variables which impact the investment decision making criteria of In addition, the study finds that professional investors have a higher trading frequency as
an individual. The study uses investment decisions as the dependent variable. In addition, compared to other investors.
financial literacy is the independent variable, while personality traits are used as mediating
variables. Past studies suggest that individuals do not always behave rationally. The Sivaramakrishnan et al., (2017) examined the effect of financial literacy on investment
behavioral finance literature explores a number of factors that affect the financial decisions decisions in the stock market. The study adopts the theory of planned behavior to explain
of an individual (Davis & Runyan, 2016; Dinç Aydemir & Aren, 2017). investor participation in the stock market of India. The theory of planned behavior
conceptualizes consumer financial literacy as a part of perceived behavioral controls
Financial products such as mortgages, leasing, credit cards, business loans are now (Ajzen, 1991). Structural equation modelling was used for data analysis. The results of the
conveniently available to all investors. Financial development requires that resources are study suggest that the intention to invest in the stock market was positively affected by
used sensibly so that the maximum benefit can be derived (Lusardi & Mitchell, 2014). Poor both subjective and objective financial literacy, whereas behavior was only influenced
quality financial information complicates the decision making process and increases the by objective financial literacy. The study also suggests that financial well-being positively
uncertainty in financial markets (Cox, Brounen, & Neuteboom, 2015). Financial literacy influence investor behavior.
supports efficient management of financial resources. Past studies suggest that investors
that have low financial literacy tend to make investment decisions that are not favorable. It Bongomin, Munene, Ntayi & Malinga (2018) focused on testing the association between
has been observed that investors with low financial literacy avoid participation in the stock financial inclusion and financial literacy of the lower class in rural Uganda. The study has a
markets and hold less diversified portfolios (Fedorova, Nekhaenko, & Dovzhenko, 2015). In a cross-sectional quantitative research design. The Baron & Kenney (1986) approach was used
changing world, financial products are becoming increasingly complicated which requires to investigate whether cognition moderates the association between financial inclusion and
investors to remain updated with the latest financial information (Garg & Singh, 2018). financial literacy of lower class in rural areas of Uganda. The results indicate that cognition
Therefore, the study investigates the impact of financial literacy on investment decisions positively moderates the association between financial inclusion and financial literacy of
with the mediating effect of personality traits based on the big-five model. lower class in rural areas of Uganda. In addition, the study found that financial inclusion of
the lower class in rural areas of Uganda is influenced by financial literacy and cognition.
Literature Review
Lubis et al., (2015) examined the psychological factors which impact investment Adam et al., (2018) investigated gender inequality in financial literacy of retired individuals
decisions. The study discusses the criteria for investment decisions from three dimensions, of Cape Coast, Ghana. The study used data from a total of 334 retired individuals comprising
i.e. corporate data, risk and repay. The study also considers the effect of personality traits, 151 females and 183 males. The survey instrument was used to assess the respondent’s
defense mechanisms, financial literacy and emotional intelligence on investment decisions. understanding of budgeting, use of automated teller machines (ATMs), concept of time
A total of 320 respondents were surveyed for data collection. The results suggest that all the value of money, types of bank accounts, use of cheques and insurance facilities. The data
independent variables influence investment decisions except emotional intelligence. was analyzed through the independent t-test and Pearson correlations. The results of the
study indicate that male respondents were more financially literate as compared to female
Fedorova et al., (2015) examined the influence of financial literacy on the stock market. respondents. The study anticipates that gender differences in financial literacy are likely to
The study uses data from 1,006 participants. The survey instrument was used to collect data diminish in the future due to a change in social trends. On the other hand, Potrich & Vieira
from the respondents. Demographic information such as, income, age, gender, education, (2018) analyzed the financial literacy of respondents residing in different cities of Brazil. The
job designation was sought from the respondents. The findings of the study suggest results suggest that financial literacy had a direct impact on compulsive buying behavior of
that financially literate investors participate proactively in the stock market. Kourtidis, respondents.
Chatzoglou, & Sevic (2017) examined whether the personality traits of investors affect their
trading behavior in the market. The study used structural equation modeling for analyzing Conceptual Framework
the data collected from 345 Greek investors. The findings of the study suggests that the Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework. The conceptual framework is based on three
trading behavior and performance of Greek investors are influenced by their personality theories, i.e. theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985), prospect theory (Kahneman &
traits. The results indicate that trading volume has a positive effect on trading frequency.
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Tversky, 1979) and five-factor personality model (Digman, 1990). cases were used for empirical analysis. Thus, the response rate was approximately 81.3%.
Measures
All the variables of the study were measured using scales adapted from the previous
literature. The scales for knowledge, skills, attitude and behavior were adapted from
Personality Trade using Bongomin et al., (2018). In addition, the scales for personality traits i.e. openness,
the Big Five Model extraversion, consientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism were adapted from John
Self-Image/ & Srivastava (1999). Finally, the scales of firm-image coincidence, accounting information,
Image coincidence
Openness neutral information, advocate information and personal financial needs were adapted from
Knowledge Hassan Al-Tamimi & Anood Bin Kalli (2009).
Accounting
Conscientiousness Information
Data Analysis
Skills Henseler, Ringle, and Sarstedt (2015) suggest that PLS-SEM has smaller size requirements
Financial Investment Neutral
Extraversion as compared to CB-SEM. Therefore, PLS-SEM was applied in this research.
Literacy Decisions Information
Attitude
Results and Findings
Agreeableness Advocate
Information
Behavior
Pre-testing
Neuroticism Personal
Prior to administering the questionnaire a pilot test was undertaken to ascertain the
Financial Needs reliability of constructs used in the study. The Cronbach’s Alpha values for all variables were
above 0.70, indicating acceptable internal consistency (Nunally & Bernstein, 1994).
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
Data screening
The authors have screened the data for both univariate outliers and multivariate
According to the theory of planned behavior, individuals behavior depends on their on outliers. For univariate outliers, standardized values (z-scores) were estimated, whereas, for
behavioral intentions. Behavioral intentions depend on internal and external factors (Ajzen, multivariate outliers, Mahalanobis Distance (D2) had been estimated. The cut-off values
2002). On the other hand, prospect theory suggests that individuals are generally risk- for univariate outliers were ±3.29, whereas, D2 < 0.001 was used for multivariate outliers
averse and take decisions that reflect this attitude towards risk. Prospect theory focuses (Tabachnick, Fidell, & Osterlind, 2001). The responses exceeding the cut-off values were
on the cognitive behavior of individuals and their desire to avoid risk for gaining particular deleted from the data. A total of seven univariate outliers and two multivariate outliers were
objectives and outcomes (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). In addition, the five-factor model detected and dropped. Therefore, the final dataset for empirical analysis consisted of 235
suggests that an individual’s behavior is dependent upon his personality traits, i.e. openness, responses.
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (Digman, 1990).
Demographic Profile of the Respondents
Methodology Table 1 provides the demographic profile of the respondents of the study.
Sample
The study uses data that was collected from Karachi, Pakistan. A total of 300 questionnaires
were distributed to the respondents using convenience sampling while 255 questionnaires
were filled and returned. After excluding 11 un-useable questionnaires the remaining 244
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Measurement Model
Table 2 shows the composite reliability, average variance explained and factor loadings.
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Path Analysis
Table 6 provides the results of direct effect of the developed hypotheses. Indirect Effects
Table 7 shows the indirect effect of the hypotheses.
Table 6: Direct Effect Path Analysis for Hypothesis-Testing
Table 7: Indirect Effect Path Analysis for Hypothesis-Testing
Estimates Std. Error T-Stats Prob.
Estimates Std. Error T-Stats Prob.
Financial Literacy → Agreeableness 0.089 0.064 1.388 0.083
Financial Literacy → Agreeableness →
Financial Literacy → Conscientiousness 0.108 0.086 1.253 0.105 Investment Decisions 0.008 0.007 1.080 0.140
Financial Literacy → Extraversion 0.390 0.056 6.966 0.000 Financial Literacy → Conscientiousness →
Financial Literacy → Neuroticism -0.426 0.040 10.701 0.000 Investment Decisions 0.002 0.006 0.340 0.367
Financial Literacy → Openness 0.254 0.059 4.299 0.000 Financial Literacy → Extraversion →
Financial Literacy → Investment Decision 0.928 0.027 33.741 0.000 Investment Decisions 0.008 0.013 0.654 0.256
Agreeableness → Investment Decision 0.086 0.041 2.122 0.017 Financial Literacy → Neuroticism →
Conscientiousness → Investment Decision 0.018 0.043 0.430 0.334 Investment Decisions 0.023 0.017 1.359 0.087
Extraversion → Investment Decision 0.022 0.031 0.690 0.245 Financial Literacy → Openness →
Neuroticism → Investment Decision -0.054 0.039 1.367 0.086 Investment Decisions -0.037 0.009 4.080 0.000
Openness → Investment Decision -0.144 0.026 5.589 0.000
The results show that openness mediates financial literacy and investment decisions
relationship. Moreover, the results show that the mediating roles of agreeableness,
The direct path analysis results reported in Table 6 suggests that agreeableness (0.089, conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism are insignificant.
p<0.10), extraversion (0.390, p<0.001), and openness to experience (0.254, p<0.001) are
significantly and positively affected by financial literacy. On the other hand, neuroticism
(-0.426, p<0.001) was negatively affected by financial literacy while conscientiousness (0.108,
Predictive Relevance
Table 8 provides the predictive relevance of the variables in the structural model.
p>0.10) was not significantly affected by financial literacy. Similarly, agreeableness (0.086,
p<0.05) has significant positive impact on investment decisions while neuroticism (-0.054,
Table 8: Predictive Relevance
p<0.10) and openness to experience (-0.144, p<0.001) have a significant negative impact on
investment decisions. However, conscientiousness (0.018, p>0.10) and extraversion (0.022, R-Squared Adjusted R Squared Q Square
p>0.10) have been found positive but statistically insignificant in relation to investment Agreeableness 0.008 0.004 0.005
decisions.
Conscientiousness 0.012 0.007 0.006
Extraversion 0.152 0.148 0.030
Openness 0.065 0.061 0.025
Neuroticism 0.182 0.178 0.091
Investment Decisions 0.895 0.893 0.462
Table 8 suggests that financial literacy can explain agreeableness by 0.8 percent,
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