Violations of CSR Practices in the Australian Financial Industry: How Is the Decision-Making Power of Australian Women Implicated?

Abstract

Financial institutions have made significant efforts in recent decades to integrate CSR activities into their core business approaches; however, several studies have shown that CSR violations have increased in the Australian financial industry, with financial institutions engaging in unethical practices and deceptive strategies to benefit their organizational profits over consumer interests. So far, research has shed light on how financial institutions have used CSR violation and manipulative strategies to bias consumer decision making, but there has been little investigation into how these manipulative techniques bias an individual’s rational, emotional, and decision-making powers when purchasing financial products. As a result, this study employs the theoretical notions of the emotion-imbued choice model (EIC) to investigate on how rational decision making, along with moderating effects of emotions (such as anxiety) and behavioural traits (such self-efficacy), influence the decision-making powers of Australian women when making financial product purchase decisions. It employs an online survey with 357 usable responses from Australian women, where several complex products and services are offered, and contentious claims of financial misconducts are reported. Data analysis is carried out through SPSS where regression analysis is performed along with double moderation performed through Hayes Process Model 2, with anxiety and self-efficacy chosen as moderators. Results reveal that anxiety significantly affects decision-making power of Australian women whereas moderating effects of self-efficacy was found to be insignificant. In addition, the regression results also showed that in the face of CSR violations, rational decision making has the greater influence on decision-making power of Australian women as compared to anxiety and self-efficacy. This study will be useful to a wide range of stakeholders, including the government, regulators, marketers, CSR activists, consumer watchdogs as they provide a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between rationality, emotions, and behavioural traits and how they affect the decision making of Australian women when making financial product purchase decisions.