Purpose Mutual funds in India have not been as favourable investment alternatives as in developed countries, as assets under management of mutual funds to gross domestic product in India have been 7-8 per cent compared to 37 per cent globally. Further, investor base of mutual funds has been narrow, as retail investors constitute 98 per cent of folios but contributed only 58 per cent of investments in September 2014. To broaden the investor base for mutual funds in India, it remains imperative to understand the determinants of investment behaviour of investors towards mutual funds. This study aims to achieve this objective. Design/methodology/approach Based on the theory of planned behaviour, the study examined the effect of awareness, attitude (perception for outcome) and socioeconomic conditions of an investor on his investment behaviour towards mutual funds with the logit model. The results are based on 450 valid responses from the primary survey in Delhi-NCR. Findings The research provided that investment behaviour could be explained with awareness, perception and socioeconomic characteristics of individual investors. Better awareness related to various aspects of mutual funds will have a positive effect on investment in mutual funds. Contrary to belief, risk perception for mutual funds had no effect on the investment decision. Further, socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, income and education of investors had an impact on the awareness about mutual funds. Research limitations/implications As the study has been confined to Delhi-NCR, it should be considered a pilot study and needs to be replicated in other states of India to have more robust results. Practical implications The study has implications for mutual funds and regulators. The study highlights a lack of awareness about mutual funds among particular sections of society as a reason for non-investment in mutual funds. The mutual funds and regulators need to focus on females, older age groups and middle-income groups in their efforts to improve their awareness about mutual funds. This would improve their investor base and flow of funds in mutual funds. Furthermore, the process of investment in mutual funds needs to simplified. Originality/value In an Indian context, this study has been the first attempt to understand the systematic relation between actual investment behaviour towards mutual funds and various determinants such as socioeconomic characteristics, awareness and attitude (perception) about mutual funds.

Investors search for criteria that are systematically related to performance of mutual funds so as to maximize their personal return. The present study is on effect of selected fund characteristics on performance of the mutual funds. The data on Indian equity mutual funds for the period 2004-2013 was utilized for the purpose. The dynamic panel data is estimated with the most efficient estimator system-Generalized Method of Moment (sys-GMM). The results show that past year's performance, flow to funds, and cash ratio explained the fund performance measured with conditional Carhart alpha. Thus, earlier documented non-persistence in the performance of mutual funds could be due to not considering the dynamic effect of lagged dependent variable. Further, we examined whether mutual fund characteristics systematically affect the naïve beta strategies followed by mutual funds. The findings show that fund characteristics such size, expense ratio, portfolio turnover ratio, and age affect trading strategy of mutual funds. The study has implications for investors of mutual funds as they can optimize their portfolio return with a strategy based on past one-year risk adjusted conditional Carhart alpha. Further, mutual fund ranking firms can consider conditional Carhart alpha as one of the criteria to rank mutual funds.

This study investigated whether lower emotional intelligence would be related to less self-efficacy to control gambling and more problem gambling and whether gambling self-efficacy would mediate the relationship between emotional intelligence and problem gambling. A total of 117 participants, including 49 women and 68 men, with an average age of 39.93 (SD = 13.87), completed an emotional intelligence inventory, a gambling control self-efficacy scale, and a measure of problem gambling. Lower emotional intelligence was related to lower gambling self-efficacy and more problem gambling. Gambling control self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and problem gambling.

Purpose The fund selection process of investors in a mutual fund needs to be understood for designing better marketing strategies. Knowledge and perception about the mutual funds can affect investor’s behaviour towards information search and selection criteria during the decision process. Therefore, this study aims to examine Indian mutual fund investors under the framework of Theory of Planned Behaviour and consumer’s behaviour model. Design/methodology/approach The data have been collected from mutual fund investors in the National Capital Region–Delhi, India, through structured questionnaire. The collected data were examined with relevant statistical tools. Findings Knowledge and perception affect information search behaviour of the investor. Investors having better knowledge of mutual funds access impersonal sources of information and performance of fund affects their choice, whereas investors having lesser knowledge of mutual fund take advice of experts and select funds based on fund characteristics. Investors with better return perception for mutual funds ignore performance as selection criteria, whereas investors having poor risk perception tend to reduce their bias by accessing personal sources of information. Education and income of investor affect knowledge and perception of mutual funds. Practical implications The financial advisor-driven investors ignore performance as selection criteria and could lead to dissatisfaction later. Therefore, to make the industry investor driven, mutual funds need to focus on improving the knowledge of investors. Originality/value This paper shows the unique effect of knowledge and perception on information search behaviour of investors towards mutual funds. The knowledgeable investor selects mutual funds by understanding all risks and benefits.

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