Chain Reaction of Behavioral Bias and Risky Investment Decision in Indonesian Nascent Investors

Abstract

Early investors possess unique sets of decision-making characteristics. They are more open to experience and eager to face risks. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the discussions of nascent investors upon making the investment decision and its eroding biases were still elusive. The vital role of emotion as a bias in decision making was also inadequately addressed. This study enhanced behavioral finance knowledge by examining emotion’s role in regulating the illusion of control, overconfidence, and investors’ decision making. In total, 456 initial investors in Indonesia participated in online questionnaires, forming the data for covariance-based structural model analysis. This study found that emotion significantly increased the illusion of control, but not overconfidence or decision making, contrary to the bulk of previous studies. The illusion of control exhibited a substantial significant effect of as much as 86.4% toward overconfidence, followed by a considerable increase in decision making. The results of our study also pointed to the unique chain effects of biases affecting the decision-making process of nascent investors in the emerging market. This finding implied they possessed a unique bias mechanism in constructing their decision.