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Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005.

The impact of micro-finance on the lives of the poor is a hotly debated issue filled with controversies and inaccuracies. The literature review on the benefits of micro-finance indicates that early debates were mostly based on heart-warming anecdotes and case studies, with little empirical study on its actual impact. Thus, despite the heated debate on micro-finance, there is still little understanding on the true empirical impacts of microfinance, particularly its psychological impacts on the poor. This study investigated the relationship and impact of micro-finance on self-esteem and self-efficacy. The study was conducted using a non-experimental research strategy (within-subjects design) and quasiexperimental strategy (pre-post-test non-equivalent control group). Two sampling methods, systematic and convenience sampling were used to select participants. A total of 264 pre-test and 159 post-test participants took part in this study. Data were collected using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and General self-efficacy scale. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was employed to measure the relationship between micro-finance, self-esteem and self-efficacy. The MANCOVA was used to investigate the impact of the provision of micro-finance on self-esteem and self-efficacy. The results not only showed that micro-finance is positively related to self-esteem and self-efficacy, but also showed that the provision of micro-finance led to an increase in the self-esteem of the recipients. The study further revealed a decline in the self-esteem of those who were declined micro-finance and highlighted the covariates that influenced this relationship. In light of these results, practical and theoretical implications affecting micro-finance practitioners, researchers and recipients are identified. Suggestions for future research are made based on the improvement of current methodologies, inclusion and use of valid control groups, the use of different sampling methods and larger sample sizes. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

The label entrepreneur is often used for the founder of a firm. Do owner-managers of small firms then remain entrepreneurial? Do they actually innovate, expand, and start additional ventures? While there are clear signs that small firms are of increasing importance to the economy, several studies suggest that the willingness among small firm managers to pursue goals for growth and development is limited. At the same time, some of them certainly continue to behave entrepreneurially. This empirical study focuses on explanations of continued entrepreneurship – and its absence – in small firms. Some of the issues addressed are: Which characteristics of the manager, the firm, the industry, and the environment promote, and which restrain small firm growth? Is it possible to delineate groups of more and less entrepreneurial small firms? Does the high-tech category represent a new and more entrepreneurial type of small firm? More than 400 managers of small firms were interviewed for this dissertation. Data on structural factors were collected from external sources. While using micro-level data, the study aims at building knowledge that is useful at the macro-level. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.</p>

The thesis Risk Denial and Neglect: Studies in Risk Perception examines societal and individual attention to risks and focuses especially on the issue of neglect. Why do some risks get more attention than other risks and how is this difference in attention related to experts’ roles in society? What can explain people’s tendency to perceive risks as more pertinent to other people? These are some of the issues that are discussed in the thesis. The topics are of interest for, e.g., risk policies, risk management, and for designing campaigns aimed at minimizing risk-related behaviors. The dissertation is written within the field of economic psychology. The research questions are addressed in four separate papers based on three empirical studies. The Papers I and II focus on societal attention to risks. They address the issues of what risks are neglected and overemphasized in society and how the identification of risk is related to experts’ domain of expertise. Papers III and IV narrow down the discussion to individual processes of risk denial – why people tend to believe that risks are more pertinent to other people. The results show that experts in the present study tended to rate risks within their own domain as lower than other risks. They were more prone to act as promoters than protectors. In addition, the robust tendency of optimistic bias was shown to exist also for technological risks (related to the use of computers) and economic risks. Most people seem to hang on to their beliefs that risks are other people’s concerns – it simply won’t happen to them. The results of the present thesis suggest that the relevance of prior experience and the commonplaceness of the risk sources is an area that merits further investigation with respect to risk denial.

Vilken betydelse har inkomstskatter för ekonomiska beteenden? Hur påverkas ekonomiska beteenden av en skatteomläggning? Denna avhandling söker ge svar på båda dessa frågor. Den handlar främst om skattefusk och sparande. Den svenska inkomstbeskattningen ändras varje år. Ofta är det fråga om små ändringar. Ibland genomförs större ändringar – en skatteomläggning. En sådan genomfördes 1983-1985. I huvudsak innebar den sänkta marginalskatter och reducerade skattmässiga värden av avdrag. Skatteomläggningen har det uttalande syftet att stimulera sparande och arbete samt att bekämpa skattefusk, spekulation och inflation. Genom analyser av offentlig statistik och data från fyra intervjuundersökningar, genomförda 1982 - 1984, ger boken svar på mer specifika frågor som: Varför skattefuskar folk? Vilken roll spelar inkomstskatterna? Finns det olika typer av sparande som skiljer sig åt vad gäller sparbeteenden och reaktioner på sparstimulerande och andra ekonomiska åtgärder? Hur utvecklades inkomstskatterna, inkomsterna och det aggregerade hushållssparandet fram till och under 1982 års skatteomläggning? Hur utvecklades skattefusket, sparandet, andra ekonomiska beteenden och ekonomiska attityder under skatteomläggningens första hälft? Boken visar hur ekonomiska och psykologiska teorier och metoder kan kombineras för att besvara frågor som de ovan. I boken presenteras ett rikhaltigt såväl teoretisk som empiriskt material. Detta kan användas för att diskutera och bedöma tänkbara konsekvenser av kommande skatteomläggningar, andra ekonomisk-politiska åtgärder och åtgärder som t ex banker vidtar. Boken är av intresse både för praktiker och teoretiskt intresserade personer. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1991</p>

Housing renovation is a major activity for many consumers in Australia, and its growing popularity in recent years has been reflected not only by it share in GDP but also by publicity it receives via home exhibitions and numerous TV renovation shows. Despite this, and despite similar experiences in other countries, research on how decisions in this sector are made is still quite sparse, a major restraint being the limitation of secondary data. This thesis attempts to improve knowledge in this area while at the same time exploring the feasibility and benefits of doing applied economic research in a pluralistic manner. From the perspective of mainstream economics, individuals’ decision-making in the context of renovation can be modelled in terms of utility/profit maximization subject to a budget constraint. The literature that has attempted to follow this research strategy is reviewed in Chapter 2, as is research undertaken in sociology that has been partly informed by behavioural economics. The economic literature fails to recognize the possible importance of social influence and psychological factors in this context. This could be unfortunate, as these factors, which are seen as important in some other economic paradigms, may explain how some renovators get derailed from rational decision-making. The methodology of pluralism offers a way to bridge between these divergent arguments by keeping mainstream insights in mind whilst at the same time adopting an ‘open-minded’ rather than ‘autistic’ attitudes towards different paradigms and embracing ‘realistic’ aspects (e.g. limits to individuals’ rational behaviours) rather than assuming them away. Chapter 3 examines the case for pluralism and shows that although debate in economics is often couched in terms of a battle between fundamentally opposed ‘mainstream’ and ‘heterodox’ views, a deeper analysis of sub-paradigms reveals a complex web of partially overlapping core ideas. Once this richer view of schools of thought in economics is recognized, orthodox economics and heterodox economics are not necessarily incompatible but rather seem potentially complementary. Despite renovation being a popular topic in Australia, relevant micro-data regarding individuals’ choices and their social and psychological attitudes towards renovation are in short supply. Therefore, unlike most previous renovation studies using published secondary data, this study involved the collection of primary data by a survey mailed to a sample of Brisbane residents in late 2006 and early 2007. Chapter 4 explains this choice of method, which provided data on respondents’ decision-making regarding renovation, their demographics, and social and psychological factors. This data set was used to analyse the following four topics: individuals’ decision to renovate or not (Chapter 5); renovators’ choice between using their own labour (DIY) or outsourcing the work (Chapter 6); psychographic segments of ‘non-renovators’, ‘DIY-renovators’ and ‘Hire-renovators’ (renovators who outsource the work) (Chapter 7); and factors shaping renovators’ tendencies to engage in overcapitalization and cost escalation in their renovation projects (Chapter 8). The pluralistic philosophy is applied in an addition way to analyse these issues, since the study used a variety of statistical techniques. The empirical results reveal that this dual form of pluralism—involving theoretical inputs from a variety of paradigms (including both ‘old’ and ‘new’ behavioural economics, socio-economics and others) and a variety of analytical techniques (cluster analysis, logistic regression and others)—does indeed widen our understanding of this topic. Generally speaking, the empirical finding stresses the importance of psychological factors in the context of individuals’ decision-making on renovation. In analysing individuals’ decisions to renovate or not, it is shown that, besides conventional factors (such as age of respondents), the psychological factor ‘perceived self-performance in renovation’ is crucial: individuals are more likely to embrace renovation if they perceive highly their ability to handle the renovation process. In exploring renovators’ decisions to engage in do-it-yourself (DIY) or hire others to do the work in their latest renovation projects, besides factors such as the scope of the project and renovators’ capabilities, the psychological factor ‘trust in contractors’ plays an important role: renovators are more likely to choose to use their own labour if they are uncertain about contractors’ reliability while those who outsource renovation works are in general more trusting than those who engage in DIY. The exploratory psychographic analysis of heterogeneous groups within each of the three groups (non-renovators, DIY-renovators and Hire-renovators) indicates the necessity of recognizing the heterogeneity the population when designing policies to improve the efficiency of the renovation market. In the investigation of renovators’ mistakes that lead to overcapitalization and cost escalation, psychological factors did not show their expected strong influences on either of these phenomena. However, it was found that the factors related to the project itself, especially the scope of the project (approximated by ‘time spent on preparation’) and the age of house, influence renovators’ overcapitalized spending and the extent of their cost escalation.

Housing renovation is a major activity for many consumers in Australia, and its growing popularity in recent years has been reflected not only by it share in GDP but also by publicity it receives via home exhibitions and numerous TV renovation shows. Despite this, and despite similar experiences in other countries, research on how decisions in this sector are made is still quite sparse, a major restraint being the limitation of secondary data. This thesis attempts to improve knowledge in this area while at the same time exploring the feasibility and benefits of doing applied economic research in a pluralistic manner. From the perspective of mainstream economics, individuals’ decision-making in the context of renovation can be modelled in terms of utility/profit maximization subject to a budget constraint. The literature that has attempted to follow this research strategy is reviewed in Chapter 2, as is research undertaken in sociology that has been partly informed by behavioural economics. The economic literature fails to recognize the possible importance of social influence and psychological factors in this context. This could be unfortunate, as these factors, which are seen as important in some other economic paradigms, may explain how some renovators get derailed from rational decision-making. The methodology of pluralism offers a way to bridge between these divergent arguments by keeping mainstream insights in mind whilst at the same time adopting an ‘open-minded’ rather than ‘autistic’ attitudes towards different paradigms and embracing ‘realistic’ aspects (e.g. limits to individuals’ rational behaviours) rather than assuming them away. Chapter 3 examines the case for pluralism and shows that although debate in economics is often couched in terms of a battle between fundamentally opposed ‘mainstream’ and ‘heterodox’ views, a deeper analysis of sub-paradigms reveals a complex web of partially overlapping core ideas. Once this richer view of schools of thought in economics is recognized, orthodox economics and heterodox economics are not necessarily incompatible but rather seem potentially complementary. Despite renovation being a popular topic in Australia, relevant micro-data regarding individuals’ choices and their social and psychological attitudes towards renovation are in short supply. Therefore, unlike most previous renovation studies using published secondary data, this study involved the collection of primary data by a survey mailed to a sample of Brisbane residents in late 2006 and early 2007. Chapter 4 explains this choice of method, which provided data on respondents’ decision-making regarding renovation, their demographics, and social and psychological factors. This data set was used to analyse the following four topics: individuals’ decision to renovate or not (Chapter 5); renovators’ choice between using their own labour (DIY) or outsourcing the work (Chapter 6); psychographic segments of ‘non-renovators’, ‘DIY-renovators’ and ‘Hire-renovators’ (renovators who outsource the work) (Chapter 7); and factors shaping renovators’ tendencies to engage in overcapitalization and cost escalation in their renovation projects (Chapter 8). The pluralistic philosophy is applied in an addition way to analyse these issues, since the study used a variety of statistical techniques. The empirical results reveal that this dual form of pluralism—involving theoretical inputs from a variety of paradigms (including both ‘old’ and ‘new’ behavioural economics, socio-economics and others) and a variety of analytical techniques (cluster analysis, logistic regression and others)—does indeed widen our understanding of this topic. Generally speaking, the empirical finding stresses the importance of psychological factors in the context of individuals’ decision-making on renovation. In analysing individuals’ decisions to renovate or not, it is shown that, besides conventional factors (such as age of respondents), the psychological factor ‘perceived self-performance in renovation’ is crucial: individuals are more likely to embrace renovation if they perceive highly their ability to handle the renovation process. In exploring renovators’ decisions to engage in do-it-yourself (DIY) or hire others to do the work in their latest renovation projects, besides factors such as the scope of the project and renovators’ capabilities, the psychological factor ‘trust in contractors’ plays an important role: renovators are more likely to choose to use their own labour if they are uncertain about contractors’ reliability while those who outsource renovation works are in general more trusting than those who engage in DIY. The exploratory psychographic analysis of heterogeneous groups within each of the three groups (non-renovators, DIY-renovators and Hire-renovators) indicates the necessity of recognizing the heterogeneity the population when designing policies to improve the efficiency of the renovation market. In the investigation of renovators’ mistakes that lead to overcapitalization and cost escalation, psychological factors did not show their expected strong influences on either of these phenomena. However, it was found that the factors related to the project itself, especially the scope of the project (approximated by ‘time spent on preparation’) and the age of house, influence renovators’ overcapitalized spending and the extent of their cost escalation.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009.

153 p. / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2012-12-17T20:13:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 888888888.pdf: 1167614 bytes, checksum: ba56025841f10ed18a90d2d6ce7efd9b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-12-17T20:13:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 888888888.pdf: 1167614 bytes, checksum: ba56025841f10ed18a90d2d6ce7efd9b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar de que forma aspectos afetivos se manifestam nos julgamentos de risco e benefício nos investidores do mercado de ações brasileiro por meio da heurística afetiva. O processo decisório que conduz aos julgamentos é complexo e multifacetado, e neste trabalho pressupõe-se que o afeto assume posição privilegiada nos julgamentos. Para alcançar o objetivo pretendido criaram-se quatro estímulos em relação ao mercado de ações: alto risco; baixo risco; alto benefício; baixo benefício. A aplicação da pesquisa ocorreu em três fases, sendo uma fase de préteste, uma fase de teste (Fase 1- Teste) e uma terceira fase que se constituiu na aplicação da pesquisa propriamente dita (Fase 2 – Pesquisa). Na fase de pré-teste ajustou-se o instrumento de coleta de dados, e na Fase 1 – Teste foi feita uma pesquisa prévia com servidores da SEFAZ-BA. Essa amostra foi composta por 134 indivíduos segregados aleatoriamente em quatro grupos (um grupo para cada estímulo). Os resultados obtidos nessa fase permitiram passar para a fase seguinte. Na Fase 2 – Pesquisa aplicou-se o experimento em uma amostra composta por 143 investidores da bolsa de valores que operam por meio do home broker. A manifestação da heurística afetiva ocorreu no Grupo 2 por meio da diferença significativa de percepção de risco e de benefício antes e depois do estímulo. Para tanto, utilizou-se o teste t para médias. Em seguida, buscou-se nas variáveis idade, gênero e grau autopercebido de conhecimento do mercado de ações as determinantes da manifestação da heurística afetiva. Por meio da regressão logística múltipla identificouse que apenas a variável grau autopercebido de conhecimento do mercado de ações exerceu influência significativa na manifestação da heurística afetiva. Os resultados encontrados na pesquisa sugerem que a heurística afetiva manifesta-se mais em indivíduos com menor grau de conhecimento, e que os fatores idade e gênero não exercem influência significativa. / Salvador