The effect of performance manipulation on fund flows under different market conditions in South Africa

Following the COVID-19 breakout, investment in shares, mutual funds, and life insurance are witnessing a growing trend in India. Hence, examining the determinants of investor preferences is necessary to maintain a positive trend. This study analyzes the impact of investor motives and awareness on investor preferences using the data collected from 753 Indian investors in 2020. Factor analysis grouped the investment motives into six categories, namely Nature of investments, Future financial needs, Investor personal characteristics, Safety and stability of investments, Investor behavioral aspects, and Investor’s options. The regression model used to find the impact of the investment motives and the awareness on the investor preferences explains 52.3% of changes in investor preference. Investment factors like Nature of investments, Investor personal characteristics, Investor behavior, Investor options, Awareness of mutual funds, and shares have a significant impact on investor preferences. Further, the awareness level of mutual funds and the stock market are the major variables contributing to Investors’ preference rather than identified investment factors. Investors’ personal characteristics like knowledge, confidence, ability, responsibility, and belief negatively influence investor preferences. This study adds to the existing literature by analyzing investment motives and preferences during the pandemic.

This paper is in pursuit of analyzing and elongating prior research on the performance evaluation of mutual funds by a comparative analysis with three categories of 82 Saudi equity funds during 2011 to 2016 using Fama’s decomposition model. The paper also made an attempt to explore the relationship with the risk reward ratio to the relative performance measure in predicting the future performance of the Saudi equity fund returns. The empirical results show that Saudi local equity funds perform better followed by Arabian and international/global equity funds in terms of expected signs and diagnostic tests.

The transformations in internet technology and financial innovation have led to the prevalence of direct finance, causing indirect finance to contract and concerns among traditional banks and insurance channel operators to seek transformation to innovate traditional services with advanced technology applications. The research compares the sales revenue flows of traditional banks, insurance companies, and mutual fund institutions, using quantile regression methods with five mutual fund factors: Jensen’s indexes, expenses, risks, sizes, and turnover rates. The sample statistics from 2001 to 2016 were evident, showing the results that sales revenue flows of bank and insurance companies did not decrease when compared to institutional fund investors, but instead, grew substantially, owing to the significant relationship of better technological services and financial innovation by banks and insurance companies. The research contribution is to point out that financial industry should focus, review and strengthen its most competitive core services inside, which are less challenged by outside competitors. By adhering to financial innovation and internet technology, it is still possible for traditional banks and insurance channels to gain substantial market shares with concentration on their core competitive services.