Previous research on investor preferences focused mainly on the relationship between socio-demographic variables and risk tolerance. This study extends the research in this area by focusing on three aspects of investor preferences: risk tolerance, time horizon, and estate intentions. The objective is to provide a more comprehensive model of investor preferences, including both psychological and attitudinal variables. This study addresses the following: Are socio-demographic variables sufficient to predict investor preferences? Is there a difference between males and females? How much additional variance is explained by including political ideology, positive psychology attitudes, and pro-social attitudes? Are these attitudinal variables simply additive or are they interactive? Data were collected from MBA students and senior undergraduate students in a major research university in South Florida. A scale was developed to measure estate intentions, a construct that has never been examined in management studies. The findings supported the expectation that psychological variables would be positively correlated with the dependent variables. However, I expected that pro-social attitudes would be a moderator variable, and this expectation was not realized. This dissertation contributes to the investor preferences field in several ways. First, it demonstrates the importance of psychological and attitudinal variables in explaining investor preferences. I also found differences between males and females regarding risk tolerance. This study can provide financial advisers with a deeper understanding of the importance of psychological and attitudinal variables in determining investor behavior. Finally, the results of this study augment and expand stakeholder theory. This study brings the investor into the stakeholder model, enhancing the descriptive, explanatory, and predictive capabilities of stakeholder theory. Future research could replicate this study using real investors in different locations for cultural variation, or using a panel of respondents for a longitudinal study.

Do investment portfolios meet the needs and preferences of investors? Can the portfolio selection process be improved? Traditionally, investor preferences have been identified using risk tolerance questionnaires. These questionnaires have recently attracted a fair deal of criticism. However, there has been little focus as to whether the questionnaires are useful in predicting investors' risk-taking behaviour. In this thesis, an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was employed to find answers to the primary research question: what factors determine risk-taking behaviour in investment decisions? This thesis looked at the risk-taking behaviour of investors in Canada (N=192) and the risk-taking advice provided by financial advisers in Canada (N=155), collectively risk-taking decisions. The results suggested that return expectations and demographic variables were important predictors of risk-taking decisions, whereas risk tolerance questionnaires were not. Further investigation suggested that investment literacy impacted risk-taking decisions while investment experience impacted both return expectations and risk-taking decisions. In a novel contribution by this thesis, additional perspective was provided by qualitative analysis using semi-structured interviews with investors and advisers. From the results of the qualitative analysis, the author suggests that discovery and self-discovery, a consistent approach and a focus on process versus outcome are key attributes valued by both investors and advisers. The thesis concluded with implications and recommendations for stakeholders, including a greater focus on return expectations, more training in discovery for advisers, simulating investment experience for prospective investors and including investment literacy in school curricula.

Despite the fact that illiquid assets pose several difficulties regarding portfolio allocation problems for investors, more investors are increasing their allocation towards them. Alternative assets are characterized as being harder to value and trade because of their illiquidity which raises the question of how they should be managed from an allocation optimization perspective. In an attempt to demystify the illiquidity conundrum, shadow allocations are attached to the classical mean-variance framework to account for liquidity activities. The framework is further improved by replacing the variance for the coherent risk measure conditional value at risk (CVaR). This framework is then used to first stress test and optimize a theoretical portfolio and then analyze real-world data in a case study. The investors’ liquidity preferences are based on common institutional investors such as Foundations & Charities, Pension Funds, and Unions. The theoretical results support previous findings of the shadow allocations framework and decrease the allocation towards illiquid assets, while the results of the case study do not support the shadow allocations framework. / Trots det faktum att illikvida tillgångar medför flera svårigheter när det gäller portföljallokeringsproblem för investerare, så ökar allt fler investerare sin allokering mot dem. Alternativa tillgångar kännetecknas av att de är svårare att värdera och handla på grund av sin illikviditet, vilket väcker frågan om hur de ska hanteras ur ett allokeringsoptimeringsperspektiv. I ett försök att avmystifiera illikviditetsproblemet adderas skuggallokeringar till det klassiska ramverket för modern portföljteori för att ta hänsyn till likviditetsaktiviteter. Ramverket förbättras ytterligare genom att ersätta variansen mot det koherenta riskmåttet CVaR. Detta ramverk används sedan för att först stresstesta och optimera en teoretisk portfölj, och sedan analysera verkliga data i en fallstudie. Investerarnas likviditetspreferenser baseras på vanliga institutionella investerare såsom stiftelser & välgörenhetsorganisationer, pensionsfonder samt fackföreningar. De teoretiska resultaten stödjer tidigare forskning om ramverket för skuggallokeringer och sänker allokeringen mot illikvida tillgångar, samtidigt som resultaten från fallstudien inte stödjer ramverket för skuggallokeringar.