DECODING INVESTMENT PREFERENCES OF WOMEN INVESTORS: A Conjoint Analysis Integrating Behavioural Finance Perspectives in the Indian Context

Abstract

How do women investors in India actually make financial decisions — and what do they genuinely value when product features compete for their attention? This study takes a rigorous look at those questions through conjoint analysis, a preference-elicitation methodology capable of capturing the simultaneous trade-offs that any real investment choice requires. Drawing on 853 Indian working women investors who completed structured choice tasks, we decompose aggregate preferences into measurable part-worth utilities across three attribute clusters: Financial Security Objectives (53.32% of total decision weight), Life Goal Objectives (34.11%), and Performance Objectives (12.57%). Six hypotheses grounded in behavioural finance theory — spanning prospect theory, loss aversion, overconfidence, herding, and financial literacy — are developed and tested.

Several findings deserve immediate attention. Transferability is the single most powerful preference driver (utility = 0.377), followed by income generation (0.068) and stability (0.059). Retirement planning (−0.191) and medical contingency (−0.326) generate notably negative utilities, signalling a pattern of present-biased underinvestment in precisely the long-horizon protections women are statistically most likely to need. Overconfidence emerges as the dominant predictor of return expectations (β = .906, p < .001), while financial literacy — rather than expanding risk appetite directly — functions as a cognitive moderator that tempers overconfidence-driven return-chasing. Three investor segments emerge: Holistic High-Priority investors (5.3%), Prestige-Driven investors (51.5%), and a Low-Engagement majority (43.3%). The study offers a replicable methodological framework for conjoint-based preference research in emerging markets, with practical implications for product designers, financial advisors, and policymakers.