Segmentation of financial clients by attitudes and behavior

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate segmentations by finance-related attitudes and behavior of financial consumers in Switzerland and Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach The authors replicated the questionnaire measuring attitudes toward financial affairs as used in the study of Fünfgeld and Wang (2009). In order to extract factors and identify profiles of financial customers, the authors applied the same techniques including factor analysis and a two-step cluster analysis (Ward and K-means) to both samples. Linear regressions were used to examine the impact of socio-demographic variables. Findings Factor analysis reveals surprisingly similar underlying dimensions of financial attitudes and behavior for participants in both countries. The five clusters based on these dimensions exhibit strikingly similar characteristics. The authors also find that socio-demographic variables such as gender, age and education significantly vary across groups. Research limitations/implications There are small differences in the composition of the revealed dimensions between the two countries, mainly a mixture of intuitive decisions and free-spending aspects. Future research may investigate more countries with comparable samples to further test the reliabilities and validities of the scales. Practical implications The findings suggest that the instruments as developed by Fünfgeld and Wang (2009) can be used not only in highly developed Western markets but also in non-Western and emerging markets. Such instruments can be very useful for offering financial advice based on market segmentation in a global market. Originality/value The study provides empirical evidence on universal segmentation variables that reflect financial consumers’ psychological traits and attitudes toward saving and spending. Furthermore, the study stresses the need for a broad use of those variables when studying consumer decision-making in international financial markets.

Determinants of Indebtedness: Influence of Behavioral and Demographic Factors

“…The earlier studies (Farrar et al 2019;Baker et al 2019;Metawa et al 2019;Phan et al 2019) found a relationship between demographic factors and financial behavior (e.g., financial literacy, risk perception, materialism, and emotion). Fletschner andMesbah (2011) andFarrar et al (2019) found a significant relationship between gender and financial literacy.…”

Survey data on Vietnamese retail investors׳ trading behavior and their psychological and behavioral patterns

“…Subjects were excluded from the dataset if providing different answers to those questions. The results regarding these statements can be found in Phan et al [5] .…”

“…The attached dataset (Appendix A) contains 621 records obtained from a randomized survey on 3144 Vietnamese financial clients concerning financial attitudes and behavior which have been first analyzed in the study of Phan et al [5] . In this paper, we only present results on their psychological, behavioral patterns and trading activities in the Vietnamese stock market.…”

“… The data article describes self-assessments of 621 Vietnamese retail investors on their trading behavior, psychological attributes and socio-demographic characteristics. The dataset was obtained from a randomized survey of 3144 Vietnamese participants on financial attitudes and practice that has been used in Phan et al [5] . A supplemental material data contains the full text, codes and numerical values of survey instruments.…”

“… 1 We only present the part of our original questionnaire used in Phan et al [6] . The remaining part was reported in the study of Phan et al [5] …”