IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/riibaf/v66y2023ics0275531923001538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investor preferences, financial literacy and intermediary choice towards sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Cucinelli, Doriana
  • Soana, Maria Gaia

Abstract

Based on a large and representative sample of Italian adults, our study aims to detect the determinants of retail investor preferences for socially responsible (SR) financial intermediaries, i.e., intermediaries adopting environmental, social and governance strategies and offering both traditional and SR financial products. We demonstrate that SR financial intermediaries are chosen by individuals characterized by high self-reported orientation towards SR investments and high financial literacy. Disaggregating financial literacy into its three determinants, we show that the higher the financial knowledge and the more correct financial behavior of retail investors related to savings and financial control, the higher their preference for SR financial intermediaries. On the other hand, individual financial attitude towards savings and spending displays a negative relationship with this preference. Moreover, retail investors with more specific knowledge about portfolio diversification choose more SR financial intermediaries than other people.

Suggested Citation

  • Cucinelli, Doriana & Soana, Maria Gaia, 2023. "Investor preferences, financial literacy and intermediary choice towards sustainability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:66:y:2023:i:c:s0275531923001538
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.102027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0275531923001538
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.102027?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Filippini, Massimo & Leippold, Markus & Wekhof, Tobias, 2024. "Sustainable finance literacy and the determinants of sustainable investing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2007. "Baby Boomer retirement security: The roles of planning, financial literacy, and housing wealth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 205-224, January.
    3. Dee Warmath & David Zimmerman, 2019. "Financial Literacy as More than Knowledge: The Development of a Formative Scale through the Lens of Bloom's Domains of Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 1602-1629, December.
    4. Hessam Bavafa & Junhao Liu & Anita Mukherjee, 2019. "Building Financial and Health Literacy at Older Ages: The Role of Online Information," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 877-916, September.
    5. Finger, Maya & Gavious, Ilanit & Manos, Ronny, 2018. "Environmental risk management and financial performance in the banking industry: A cross-country comparison," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-261.
    6. Azmi, Wajahat & Hassan, M. Kabir & Houston, Reza & Karim, Mohammad Sydul, 2021. "ESG activities and banking performance: International evidence from emerging economies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Frankovic, Ivan & Kolb, Benedikt, 2024. "The role of emission disclosure for the low-carbon transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Aristei, David & Gallo, Manuela & Vannoni, Valeria, 2024. "Preferences for ethical intermediaries and sustainable investment decisions in micro-firms: The role of financial literacy and digital financial capability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manos, Ronny & Finger, Maya & Boukai, Haim, 2024. "Self-regulation for responsible banking and ESG disclosure scores: Is there a link?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Ali, Mohsin & Azmi, Wajahat & Kowsalya, V. & Rizvi, Syed Aun R., 2023. "Interlinkages between stability, carbon emissions and the ESG disclosures: Global evidence from banking industry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Hyesun Hwang & Hyung In Park, 2023. "The relationships of financial literacy with both financial behavior and financial well‐being: Meta‐analyses based on the selective literature review," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 222-244, January.
    4. Gaia Soana, Maria, 2024. "Does ESG contracting align or compete with stakeholder interests?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Maria Celia López-Penabad & Ana Iglesias-Casal & José Fernando Silva Neto & José Manuel Maside-Sanfiz, 2023. "Does corporate social performance improve bank efficiency? Evidence from European banks," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1399-1437, May.
    6. Abdelsalam, Omneya & Azmi, Wajahat & Disli, Mustafa & Kowsalya, V., 2023. "Bank lending cyclicality and ESG activities: Global evidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    7. Saif-Alyousfi, Abdulazeez Y.H. & Saha, Asish & Alshammari, Turki Rashed, 2023. "Bank diversification and ESG activities: A global perspective," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(3).
    8. Herenia Gutiérrez-Ponce & Sigit Arie Wibowo, 2023. "Do Sustainability Activities Affect the Financial Performance of Banks? The Case of Indonesian Banks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, April.
    9. Galletta, Simona & Mazzù, Sebastiano & Naciti, Valeria, 2022. "A bibliometric analysis of ESG performance in the banking industry: From the current status to future directions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Christelis, Dimitris & Dobrescu, Loretti I. & Motta, Alberto, 2020. "Early life conditions and financial risk-taking in older age," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    11. Tullio Jappelli, 2010. "Economic Literacy: An International Comparison," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 429-451, November.
    12. Burke, Matt & Fry, John, 2019. "How easy is it to understand consumer finance?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-4.
    13. Justin Falk & Nadia Karamcheva, 2019. "The Effect of the Employer Match and Defaults on Federal Workers’ Savings Behavior in the Thrift Savings Plan: Working Paper 2019-06," Working Papers 55447, Congressional Budget Office.
    14. Simona Galletta & Sebastiano Mazzù & Valeria Naciti & Carlo Vermiglio, 2021. "Sustainable development and financial institutions: Do banks' environmental policies influence customer deposits?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 643-656, January.
    15. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    16. Alisdair McKay, 2011. "Household Saving Behavior and Social Security Privatization," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2011-027, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    17. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    18. Diana Warren, 2008. "Retirement Expectations and Labour Force Transitions: The Experience of the Baby Boomer Generation," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2008n24, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    19. Mastrobuoni, Giovanni, 2011. "The role of information for retirement behavior: Evidence based on the stepwise introduction of the Social Security Statement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 913-925, August.
    20. Sseruyange, J. & Bulte, E., 2018. "Do Incentives matter for Knowledge Diffusion? Experimental Evidence from Uganda," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275896, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    SRI; Financial literature; Financial knowledge; Retail investor; SR financial intermediaries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:66:y:2023:i:c:s0275531923001538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ribaf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.