Caterina Lucarelli

Marche Polytechnic University | Università degli Studi di Ancona · Department of Management

Purpose The literature on the drivers affecting retail investor preferences towards socially responsible investments (SRIs) has increased significantly over recent years, revealing several influencing factors. Given the wide variety and ambiguity of the available evidence, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the existing literature on this topi...

This paper explores households’ decision-making process to undertake green retrofitting investments, with the aim to identify the key behavioural drivers to adoption. We developed a discrete choice experiment survey and collected data from a sample of 434 individuals to explore the influence of monetary and non-monetary incentives on energy saving...

The resource-based view, signaling, and behavioral perspectives focus on different theoretical mechanisms through which human capital and the behavioral characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs, in combination with insider and outsider financing, may influence the emergence of new ventures. This work tests the relative explanatory power of these di...

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings were developed to account for the multidimensional nature of the sustainability of firms. Research on ESG ratings suggests that working towards sustainability means engaging in a utopian effort, as in the chimera myth. We developed a conceptual framework of corporate activities that guides a syste...

The European Union Taxonomy on Sustainable Finance is the first comprehensive classification designed to identify the extent to which an economic activity is environmentally sustainable. This paper investigates how the EU Taxonomy affected corporate investments for Taxonomy-eligible companies compared to non-eligible ones. We applied a difference-i...

This section describes the process adopted to gather, process and analyse the data. It starts from the literature about data mining and Knowledge Discovery in databases and follows by describing thoroughly the scraping, wrangling and pre-processing phases also from an applied perspective. The observation period, i.e., when the data mining process h...

This section provides the main empirical results obtained from the analysis. It contains both a descriptive overview of the samples, together with an exploratory analysis (univariate statistics, t-tests), and an inferential analysis on the observations, namely multivariate regressions. Lastly, the last subsections also provide analysis from both co...

This section provides an overview of the data analysis performed and of the econometric models adopted to test the research hypotheses. It begins by introducing the strategy of analysis, follows with a review of the main findings obtained from extant literature, which represents the benchmark for our comparison, and concludes by explaining the anal...

This section concludes the manuscript and offers an overview of the work, as well as the main contributions to theory and practice.KeywordsEquity crowdfundingCampaign successTheoretical implicationsPolicy recommendation

This section reveals the content of the manuscript and introduces the work, with a short description of motivation of the research based on theories of information driving demand and supply of capital within a FinTech environment; the section underlines the additional contribution of this research, given the chance to analyse and compare a large se...

This section lays the ground and reviews the literature upon which the work draws. On one hand, the theoretical background is based on the entrepreneurial finance pillar, which studies the FinTech environment and, in particular, the crowdfunding phenomenon. On the other hand, the framework comprises theories about information asymmetry and signalli...

This section describes the final samples obtained from the data collection phase. It also includes a description of the ECF platforms selected for the investigation (in alphabetic order, 200Crowd, Companisto, Crowdcube, Crowdfunder.com, Fundedbyme, Invesdor, Mamacrowd, Opstart, Seedrs and Sowefund) and of both the target and explanatory variables.K...

This paper provides a brief review of the recent advances in Green Fintech research using a bibliometric analysis approach to summarize the state of the art and development trends of literature. We gathered data from two of the most comprehensive and widely used databases (Web Of Science and Scopus) and extracted 50 peer-reviewed articles. We uncov...

Purpose This paper aims to provide a multidisciplinary framework that allows an integrated understanding of reasons of success or failure in equity crowdfunding (ECF), a Fintech digital innovation of the traditional entrepreneurial finance, defining a future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review (SLR) has been...

Based on theories of herding behaviour and information cascade, this paper investigates features that affect retail investors’ willingness to invest in equity crowdfunding.This study assumes that investors can update their choice set by observing different sources of information, following an information cascade, in line with theories of signals an...

We question if risk phenomenology revealed by money corresponds to its subjective perception, and if properly identifies individual risk aversion or propensity. We set two theoretical decision rules in terms of minimizing or maximizing risk, for any given return, and test their adherence to effective behaviors when performing a large experiment (69...

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change issues present evident interdependencies which justify the spread of connected beliefs. We examine possible changes in individuals’ pro-environmental behavior in light of this pandemic, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework. A questionnaire survey was submitted to the same sample of individual...

In March 2020, the European Commission published the EU Taxonomy, a classification system of economic activities that can be considered environmentally sustainable. Motivated by this policy initiative, we propose a bibliometric analysis, based on the Web of Science database for the period January 1990–March 2020, regarding the extant scientific pro...

Purpose This paper aims to dismantle the idea that sex per se explains entrepreneurial outcomes and demonstrates the influence of a gendered motivation on forging and shaping new venture teams, which is a disruptive choice affecting the future of start-ups. Design/methodology/approach A two-level research model is validated on data from the Panel...

Finance and technology—Fintech, from the crasis of Finance and Technology—are currently present in many everyday activities. Innovation is creating huge opportunities but also new threats, which deserve to be examined and monitored. As already stated by the Financial Stability Board, a global approach is essential, however it needs to be shared wit...

The experience offered by the Italian Arbitro Bancario Finanziario allows to explore banking litigations within a behavioral perspective. The goal is to find evidence of the framing cognitive bias and to carry out an impact assessment, in terms of its relationship with the judge's decision. We randomly selected 100 decisions from the Abf web archiv...

The Law & Economics literature analyses the incentives of parties to solve disputes through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes; it shows benefits and costs to private parties and society. Shorter duration of ADR proceedings compared to court litigation, greater predictability of decisions, tailored solutions and confidentiality, are priva...

This chapter aims at analysing banking litigations according to a behavioural perspective. The purpose is to uncover the intensity of affection for distortions or cognitive biases suffered by customers and to do an impact assessment. In fact, perfect rationality during the decision-making process might not be applicable due to several interferences...

Irrational debt decisions at the individual level may harm collective welfare. For this reason, regulators are committed to encourage information-based behaviours in order to enhance likelihood of appropriate indebtedness. We analyse, with a diff-in-diff estimator, the Italian case offered by the Legislative Decree that reformed the consumer credit...

Using a proprietary database of lending decisions (N = 9,898) for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), the paper investigates how banks cope with the adverse selection dilemma. Based on an intertemporal framework, we qualify incorrect and correct lending decisions of banks and investigate the power of lending technologies to predict errors an...

This paper investigates how different representations of financial information may be appraised in terms of complexity and usefulness, and how financial disclosure influences individuals’ risk perception. By using a consumer testing analytical approach, we run a survey on a sample of Italian investors: 254 bank customers were submitted 4 different...

Our empirical analysis of gender diversity, within the boards of 83 Ipos listed in Italian Stock Exchange, shows a lower female participation in board of directors for companies of larger dimensions, higher concentrated shareholding structure, better profitability, higher seniority of both the company and of board members. Financial sector companie...

Individuals often show time-inconsistent preferences when making intertemporal choices for monetary rewards. Time-inconsistent preferences generally emerge when observing the devaluation of outcomes over time (temporal discounting) that do not follow an exponential discounting function, but rather hyperbolic discounting. In this paper, we argue tha...

Purpose This paper aims to improve knowledge of individual heterogeneity in affecting the entrepreneurial attitude, taking socioeconomic drivers under control thanks to a cross-country analysis. The authors operate a “selection” of proxy for individual heterogeneity, mainly based on gender, demographical features, personal attitude and intrinsic mo...

We relax assumptions on individual risk preference, and set two theoretical rules for portfolio choices: either minimize or maximize risk, for any return. Risk is modeled by four alternative formulas. We empirically test these rules by observing N=690 individuals (Caucasians, bank customers and financial professionals, aged 18-88), while making ris...

We exploit the natural experiment offered by a proprietary dataset of lending decisions in favour of SMEs, investigating which kind of information is able to predict quality of banking choices. We classify right and wrong decisions based on a confusion matrix applied to an intertemporal theoretical framework. We investigate if right and wrong choic...

We exploit the natural experiment offered by a proprietary dataset of lending decisions in favour of SMEs, investigating which kind of information is able to predict quality of banking choices. We classify right and wrong decisions based on a confusion matrix applied to an intertemporal theoretical framework. We investigate if right and wrong choic...

This paper investigates the subjective understanding and perception of financial information and their impact on investment decisions. A consumer testing approach is applied in order to explore: i) how different representation formats (or Templates) are appraised in terms of complexity, usefulness and information content, ii) how different Tem-plat...

The paper offers a comprehensive analysis of causes and consequences of the accumulation of emotional experience, measured via skin conductance response, when taking risky choices. A large experimental data set was obtained from a psycho-physiological task conducted with 645 bank customers and financial professionals. With respect to causes, we fou...

In this paper, we argue that time-inconsistent preferences in financial decision-making are sensitive to the kind of prospection involved. Given that episodic prospection increases the subjective importance of a future reward (Benoit, Gilbert and Burgess, 2011), we expect that this human faculty is able to reduce hyperbolic discounting biases. Furt...

This paper describes a financial education (FE) experiment organized in Italy by the National Association of Scholars on Financial Institutions and Markets (ADEIMF). The international experience of FE programs addressed to children, as well as findings on learning/cognitive attitudes of adults, motivate the choice of a demand-driven approach to FE....

Declining welfare systems increase the importance of self-determination in pension decisions. Thus, the stability of long-life consumption markedly relies on individual long-range planning attitude. Our paper investigates how behavioural traits affect this attitude and influence the probability of holding voluntary integrative pension schemes (VIPS...

his paper investigates gender differences in behaviour under uncertainty, as this personal condition in fluences entrepreneurship. We explore risk taking attitude and ambiguity aversion used in economic decisions on a sample of 645 individuals. We collect objective measurements of risk/ambiguity aversion from a psycho-physiological task, and we gat...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how psychological variables are related to real-life insurance consumption. Specifically, the authors focus on whether emotions and psychological traits can improve the predictability of insurance demand, taking traditional socioeconomic variables under control. Design/methodology/approach – The app...

This paper analyses the empirical risk tolerance of individuals and the role of physiological measures of risk perception. By using a test that mimics the financial decision process in a laboratory setting (N = 445), we obtained an ex-post empirical measure of individual risk tolerance. Predictive classification models allow us to evaluate the accu...

In this paper we investigate a condition which is preliminary to attitude towards entrepreneurship and innovation, because we focus on human behaviour in condition of uncertainty. We analyse whether it exists a 'biological' difference, between females and male, when behaving under such condition. Uncertainty is generally referred to risk, on the on...

This paper offers a theoretical generalization of the mean-variance theory (MVT) by integrating the 'expected return/risk rule' with variables that measure emotions. We validate its accuracy using a psyco-physiological experi-ment with a sample of 645 individuals who were asked to take portfolio decisions in a laboratory setting. Results show that...

4.1 Insurance coverage and cognitive functioning - 4.2 Time perception and insurance choices - 4.3 Future perspectives on insurance demand investigation

This paper investigates whether an individual’s emotional profile affects their insurance decision making. We explore how the emotional reaction in conditions of ambiguity and the fear of the unknown affect insurance choices. We conducted psycho-physiological experiments on a sample of 645 individuals and find evidence that these emotional variable...

Declining welfare systems increase the importance of self-determination in pension decisions. Thus, the stability of long-life consumptions markedly relies on the individual long-range planning attitude. Our paper investigates how behavioural components affect this attitude, by observing in which conditions individuals hold voluntary integrative pe...

Literature on strategic planning puts forward alternative choices that a company can make between standardization and customization of business processes, as suggested by the seminal works of Lampel and Mintzberg (1996) and Gilmore and Pine (1996, 1999). Recent studies reconsider mass customization (Salvador et al., 2009; Logina, 2010) and suggest...

This paper investigates whether an individual’s emotional profile affects their insurance decision making. We explore how the emotional reaction in conditions of ambiguity and the fear of the unknown affect insurance choices. We conducted psycho-physiological experiments on a sample of 645 individuals and find evidence that these emotional variable...

This paper analyzes the empirical risk tolerance of individuals. Rare empirical evidence shows the role of personal behavior in both propensity toward financial risk and risk aversion. By using a test which mimics the financial decision process in a laboratory setting for 445 individuals, we obtained an ex-post experimental measure for individual r...

page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any re...

Consider a stock which is simultaneously traded on two or more venues, either because its company is cross-listed or because regulation allows multi-trading. We set the idea that these venues are 'indirectly' connected and represent a network. If the 'importance' of a venue is traditionally measured by its isolated-centrality (e.g. trading volumes...

This paper investigates the network features of European trading venues by analyzing the behavior of simultaneously quoted stock. Equity trading venues include both regulated Stock Exchanges (SEs) and Alternative Trading Venues (ATVs) and these represent the nodes of our network. The connections among these nodes are determined by choices of invest...

This paper proposes a theoretical framework which sets alternative business models (BMs) in the wealth management industry, testing them with experimental data. Our “map” of business models arises when wealth managers (WMs) potentially make a mix of business process standardization/customization, together with ‘make or buy choices’, after an extern...

The overall empirical findings of our study on risk tolerance are two-fold: on the one hand, we revealed relevant incoherencies among alternative measures of risk tolerance, on the investment side of decision processes. On the other hand, we found that unknown psychological drivers affect the choice to assume debts, especially with regard to unsecu...

Theoretically, financial risk tolerance depends upon different dimensions of risk. Some commentators (Cordell, 2002) have defined the term ‘risk tolerance’ to mean a combination of both ‘risk attitude’ (how much risk I choose to take) and ‘risk capacity’ (how much risk I can afford to take) (Roszkowski et al.). The first empirical goal of this stud...

The research relies on an innovative cross-disciplinary approach, mixing financial competences with others, related to psychology and affective neuroscience. The analysis involves an assorted sample of individuals, with different levels of financial education/competences: customers of banks, traders and asset managers. More than 600 individuals wer...

This paper focuses on risk tolerance, which works as a relevant feature affecting financial decision-making. Specifically, financial risk tolerance may be defined as ‘the maximum amount of uncertainty someone is willing to accept when making a financial decision’ (Grable, 2008). Theoretically, financial risk tolerance depends upon different dimensi...

This paper focuses on risk tolerance which clearly influences financial decision making. We explore the emotional side of a risk taking behaviour, comparing alternative measures of financial risk tolerance resulting from the consilience of various disciplines. We wonder whether we financially act as we are or as we are supposed to be. Thus we measu...

We analyze how pre-trade transparency (PTT) affects the behavior of different stock traders. To do so, we exploit a natural experiment, that is the PTT change in the equity segment of Italian Stock Exchange which occurred in July 2007, with the aim of reducing information asymmetries between individuals and intermediaries/institutional investors. W...

This paper focuses on the risk tolerance which clearly influences financial decision making. We investigated the emotional side of risk-taking behaviour, identifying subjective obstacles to the individual ability taking conscious investment and debt decisions. We used an empirical cross-disciplinary approach, combining financial competences with ot...

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects that have been caused by changes in pre-trade transparency upon the behavior of stock traders. We used a trade size model and tested it before, during and after the period when the Italian Stock Exchange introduced a 20-level order book with disaggregated orders. Tick by tick data of the whole se...

The purpose of the paper is to find empirical evidence of how Italian investors reacted (emotionally?) to some relevant exogenous and endogenous events affecting the Italian Stock Exchange (ISE) during the summer 2007: the sub-prime crisis, the ISE merger with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the introduction of "Book Profondo" (BP). In particul...

This paper describes the DAT financial innovation and depicts how PTT is disclosed in various Stock Exchanges. Stronger or weaker barriers in different stock markets determine different PTT dimensions and levels of pre trade global information. The aim of the paper is to test whether different PTT levels are able to affect the volatility and liquid...

The sciences of mind recognize that our decisions arise from the interaction between rational and emotional processes.This article explores some aspects of the emotional components acting in financial risk decision making process.The research has been conducted on a large stratified sample of individuals and professionals and has compared the class...

In this paper we examine how the pre-trade transparency (PTT), a specific market microstructure feature, affects the liquidity and the price volatility of a Stock Exchange. In particular, we estimate a system of simultaneous equations for a set of liquidity and volatility indicators as a function of the PTT, given a series of control vari-ables. Ou...

This paper investigates the Chinese mainland Stock Exchanges and their following interconnecting features: savers’ attitude towards stock investments, investors’ trading behaviour and stock returns explanations. We evaluate the effectiveness of the recent efforts made by the Chinese authorities to improve the level of legal protections for sharehol...

The aim of the paper is to test whether different PTT levels are able to affect the volatility and liquidity of a Stock Exchange. Much research carried out over the last few years has attempted to describe these relationships, yet their empirical results have sometimes contradicted one another (see Section 2). Nevertheless, the innovative contribut...