Mental Accounting and decision making: a systematic literature review

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of mental accounting has been widely used in the literature to investigate its influence on decision-making processes related to savings, investment, debt and consumption. This study explores, through bibliometric analysis, the scientific production on the influence of mental accounting bias in decision-making processes, analyzing its intellectual structure and trends. The results reveal works with global and local relevance, the most prominent authors and countries today, and the prominence of Kahneman, Tversky and Thaler studies for the study of the subject. The analysis of the descriptors showed 8 research clusters, which can serve as a reference for future research. The study revealed that "mental accounting" has a strong impact on behavioral finance and has been widely applied in research in other areas of knowledge, mainly in the field of Marketing, to investigate its influence on consumer choice.