Irrationalities in Investment Decisions: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Behavioural biases are a branch of behavioural finance which focuses on irrationalities in the decision-making of investors. The present study is a bibliometric analysis of the research in the area of “behavioural biases” to bring out the evolution, growth, major contributions, and trend topics in the field. Through bibliometric analysis, the study made a time-line based scientific mapping of publications in behavioural biases. Biblioshiny, a web interface tool in the bibliometrix R software package, is employed for mapping the literature. A total of 340 documents were extracted from the Web of Science database using the keyword “behavioural biases”. The documents were refined using the PRISMA framework, and 172 of themwere included in the study. The analysis shows that the first article on the topic was published in 1995 by Schweitzer, and the year in which the most articles were published was 2020. Alok Kumar, University of Texas, has made the highest contribution in the field. The United States is the leading contributor. ‘Prospect theory’ remains the most used keyword, and the thematic analysis reveals that ‘investment’ is the main theme around which more articles are written. The most globally cited article is Frank Zhang’s ‘Information Uncertainty and Analyst Forecast Behavior,’ published in 2006. By analysing the results, it is evident that there is a wide scope for exploration into the various dimensions of behavioural finance. Prospective researchers can effectively utilise the gaps prevailing in the discipline of behavioural finance.