Investment decision-making process is concerned with how an investor should proceed
in making a decision about what marketable securities to invest in, how extensive the
investment should be and when the investment should be made. Investment is sacrifice
of current rupees for future rupees. Investment has got two attributes—time and risk. The
sacrifice takes place in the present and is certain. The reward to be received in future is
generally uncertain. In some cases, element of time dominates (e.g., government bonds).
Either time or risk or both are important (e.g., shares of common stock) (Sharpe et al., 1996).
Indian economy has offered a plethora of opportunities to men and women alike in the
last few years due to higher GDP growth rate. This has led to higher income levels and
availability of new investment avenues. Government savings departments, banks,
financial institutions and mutual fund houses are vying for a share in the savings of
investors. Investors now have many options for making investments like debt
instruments, stocks, mutual funds, gold, etc. With the role of women becoming
increasingly important in the family and society, it becomes important to examine the
investment behavior of women investors.
Hinz et al. (1997), Byrnes et al. (1999), and Bernasek and Shwiff (2001) highlighted that
women are more risk-averse than men, while Sunden and Surette (1998) found that gender
and marital status are significantly related to asset allocation. Hibbert et al. (2008) revealed that gender risk aversion is related to age, income, wealth, marital status, race/ethnicity
and the number of children under 18 in the household.
It becomes imperative for small savings department of central and state government,
banks, mutual fund houses, etc. to enquire about the awareness level regarding the
different schemes available among investors. The present study was conducted to analyze
the level of knowledge regarding various investment avenues, select investment practices,
and factors influencing investment decision making among male and female employees of
private sector banks in a city of India.
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