Social influence pressures and the risk preferences of aspiring financial market professionals

Q1 Social Sciences

Journal of Accounting Education Pub Date : 2023-03-01 DOI:10.1016/j.jaccedu.2022.100828

Jorien Louise Pruijssers , Gallia Singer , Zvi Singer , Desmond Tsang

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Abstract

To better understand the behavior of financial market professionals, in this study, we analyze the risk preferences of aspiring financial market professionals before they enter the financial markets and examine whether these risk preferences are influenced by obedience and conformity pressures. We conducted an experiment involving 131 students and asked them to choose between risky and safe grading options. Observing their change of choices under social influence pressures, we found that obedience pressure significantly influenced their risk choices, but conformity pressure was effective only when the peer information was delivered by an authority figure. Overall, our findings imply that risk preferences are not invariable and can be maneuvered by an authority figure. For practitioners, our findings imply that managers in financial firms can use their power responsibly to discourage excessive risk-taking behavior. For academia, our findings show the importance of training accounting graduates with competencies beyond technical proficiency and with better understanding of the social context in which (ethical) decisions are made.

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有抱负的金融市场专业人士的社会影响力压力和风险偏好

为了更好地理解金融市场专业人士的行为，本研究分析了有抱负的金融市场专业人士在进入金融市场之前的风险偏好，并考察了这些风险偏好是否受到服从和从众压力的影响。我们对131名学生进行了一项实验，要求他们在风险评分和安全评分之间做出选择。观察他们在社会影响压力下的选择变化，我们发现服从压力显著影响他们的风险选择，而从众压力只有在权威人物传递同伴信息时才有效。总的来说，我们的发现表明风险偏好不是不变的，可以被权威人物操纵。对于从业者，我们的研究结果表明，金融公司的管理者可以负责任地使用他们的权力来阻止过度的冒险行为。对于学术界而言，我们的研究结果表明，培养具有超越技术熟练程度和更好地理解(道德)决策的社会背景的会计毕业生的重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Accounting Education Social Sciences-Education

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Accounting Education (JAEd) is a refereed journal dedicated to promoting and publishing research on accounting education issues and to improving the quality of accounting education worldwide. The Journal provides a vehicle for making results of empirical studies available to educators and for exchanging ideas, instructional resources, and best practices that help improve accounting education. The Journal includes four sections: a Main Articles Section, a Teaching and Educational Notes Section, an Educational Case Section, and a Best Practices Section. Manuscripts published in the Main Articles Section generally present results of empirical studies, although non-empirical papers (such as policy-related or essay papers) are sometimes published in this section. Papers published in the Teaching and Educational Notes Section include short empirical pieces (e.g., replications) as well as instructional resources that are not properly categorized as cases, which are published in a separate Case Section. Note: as part of the Teaching Note accompany educational cases, authors must include implementation guidance (based on actual case usage) and evidence regarding the efficacy of the case vis-a-vis a listing of educational objectives associated with the case. To meet the efficacy requirement, authors must include direct assessment (e.g grades by case requirement/objective or pre-post tests). Although interesting and encouraged, student perceptions (surveys) are considered indirect assessment and do not meet the efficacy requirement. The case must have been used more than once in a course to avoid potential anomalies and to vet the case before submission. Authors may be asked to collect additional data, depending on course size/circumstances.