Information and reputation influences in stock investment decisions: Forward vs. backward herd behaviors of disposed and anti-disposed effect investors
Affiliations: School of Business Administration, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea
Note: [] Corresponding author: Do-Yeong Kim, School of Business Administration, Ajou University, San 5, Wonchun-Dong, Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon 443-749, South Korea. Tel.: +82 031 219 2914; Fax: +82 031 219 1616; E-mail: kimd@ajou.ac.kr.
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to examine whether the provision of information on the stocks and investment decisions of non-expert and expert investors (i.e., those with reputations) would influence personal investment characteristics such that one's stock portfolio decisions made at a preliminary phase would be reinforced or reversed at a later stage. Personal investment characteristics were first identified according to how individuals treated stocks in gain and loss situations; investors were then classified into two types (this refers to the disposition vs. anti-disposition effect). Both Study 1 and 2 revealed that regardless of the type of investor, participants exhibited a reversal in their preliminary decisions after being informed of others' decisions that were contradictory to their own, whereas they did not reinforce their preliminary decisions after being given the decisions of others that were consistent with their own. The outcomes of the study provide theoretical and practical implications regarding herd behavior.
