The Relationship between Behavioral Tendencies and Stock Market Participation: A Study for Accounting and Finance Academics

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the behavioral tendencies of accounting and finance academics in participating in the stock market and to examine the impact of these behavioral tendencies on their participation in the stock market. Behavioral finance recognizes that investors do not act rationally. Investors are influenced by behavioral trends and socioeconomic factors in addition to risk and return factors. Although there are many behavioral tendencies, the most basic behavioral tendencies recognized in the literature are risk tolerance, self-confidence, herd behavior, and anchoring tendencies. Along with the above factors, the socioeconomic factors of the participants and their participation in the stock market were also examined. The surveys, which were conducted among a total of 403 academics in the field of accounting and finance, were analyzed using logistic regression and chi-square test. As a result of the analyzes conducted in this study, it was found that there is a relationship between behavioral tendencies and 8 socioeconomic factors and participation in the stock market. Moreover, it was found that demographic variables such as age, marital status, amount of savings and years of academic experience have a significant relationship with participation in the stock market.