סמינר בהתנהגות ארגונית

Prof. Yael Steinhart Tel Aviv University

When making investments, investors can choose between passive investments, characterized by not making investment changes during the investment period, and active investments that involve frequent investment changes. Despite evidence indicating passive investments outperform active investments, investors invest considerably more in active investments. Thus, encouraging investors to rely more on passive investment strategies seems beneficial. The current research contends investors may find passive investments unappealing because they associate them with low perceived control. Building on literature showing that information increases perceived control, five studies demonstrate that promising participants they will receive information during the investment period about the performance of a passive investment and the market in general boosts participants’ evaluations of the investment. Process evidence indicates investors perceive greater control over the passive investment when they expect information, and this perception of control mediates the effect of information on investment attractiveness. These findings are intriguing because participants knew they could not use the information to change their investments. The expected profitability of the market and its volatility moderate the effect of information. Last, a simulation exercise predicts the provision of information may increase investors’ use of passive investment tools by ~ $690 billion in the US market alone