INVESTIGATING MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION CHANNEL SEARCH BEHAVIOUR OF RETAIL INVESTORS FOR INVESTMENT DECISION IN EMERGING FINANCIAL MARKETS

Abstract

The purpose of this study aims at investigating the major sources of information which drives the investor’s behaviour in investment decisions in Indian Financial Markets. Diverse sources are classified into three categories, that is, financial advice, word-of-mouth communication and specialised press to investigate their effects on the investment behaviour of investors. A total of 258 investors filled a survey on a questionnaire in the National Capital Region of India by using the purposive sampling method. For analysis of data, PLS-SEM was applied on the software version 3.2.9. The key outcome of the study revealed that financial advice was considered as first choice (β = 0.265, p<0.000) to build their investment decision primarily on weekly basis followed by word-of-mouth communication (β = 0.154, p<0.05). Lastly, the mutual fund investors prefer financial newspapers and financial reports published by mutual fund regulatory body and their companies in India to do mutual funds investment. This study proposed a conceptual model in the literature of information search behaviour for mutual funds and contributes significantly to the mutual fund companies and investment agencies to market financial products in an effective manner for investors.