We investigate several possible links between psychological factors and trading performance in a sample of 80 anonymous day-traders. Using daily emotional-state surveys over a fiveweek period as well as personality inventory surveys, we construct measures of personality traits and emotional states for each subject and correlate these measures with daily normalized profits-and-losses records. We find that subjects whose emotional reaction to monetary gains and losses was more intense on both the positive and negative side exhibited significantly worse trading performance. Psychological traits derived from a standardized personality inventory survey do not reveal any specific “trader personality profile”, raising the possibility that trading skills may not necessarily be innate, and that different personality types may be able to perform trading functions equally well after proper instruction and practice.

To increase their revenue from electronic commerce, more and more Internet businesses are soliciting personal information from consumers so as to target products and services at the right consumers. But when deciding whether to disclose their personal information to Internet businesses, consumers may weigh the concerns of giving up information privacy against the benefits of information disclosure. This paper examines how Internet businesses can motivate consumers to disclose their personal information. Based on a synthesis of the literature, it identifies seven types of extrinsic or intrinsic benefits that Internet businesses can provide when soliciting personal information from consumers. Through comprehensive conceptual and empirical validation processes, it develops an instrument that allows Internet businesses to gauge the preference of consumers for the various types of benefits. By testing a set of nomological networks, it offers some ideas to Internet businesses about what types of benefits may be more effective given the personality traits of consumer populations. Besides providing a foundation for efforts at developing theories on information privacy and information disclosure, the results of this research provide useful suggestions to Internet businesses on how best to solicit personal information from consumers. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Key words: privacy, Internet business, information disclosure, extrinsic benefit, intrinsic benefit, personality, confirmatory factor analysis. We gratefully thank all participants in the 2002 NUS summer research workshop and the 2002 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). We also thank Ee-Cheah Tam for her contributions to a previous version of this manuscript, and Juan-Juan Han for her research

The paper reports the results of an experiment on individual investors’ risk perception in a stock market context under two different modes of information presentation (framings). While the concentration on two moments of a return distribution has been a cornerstone of neo-classic finance theory from the start (Markowitz 1952) an alternative’s mean and variance have been selected more by convenience and ease of computation than by theoretical or empirical justification. Even though the most influential models are based on variance as risk measure there has always been much discontent with this proposal. The symmetrical nature of variance does not capture the common notion of risk as something undesired, e. g. negative deviations from a reference point. Instead, lower partial moments (LPM) seem to be more appropriate for measuring risk. The purpose of this paper is to examine experimentally private investors’ risk perception in a financial context. The focus is on the correspondence of people’s risk perceptions with specific LPMs. The main findings can be summarized as follows. First, symmetrical risk measures like variance can be clearly dismissed in favor of shortfall measures like LPMs. Second, the reference point (target) of individuals for defining losses is not a distribution’s mean but the initial price in a time series of stock prices. Third, the LPM which explains risk perception best is the LPM0, i. e. the probability of loss. Fourth,

Location-based services (LBS) use positioning technology to provide individual users the capability of being constantly reachable and accessing network services while on the move. However, privacy concerns associated with the use of LBS may ultimately prevent consumers from gaining the convenience of anytime/anywhere personalized services. Understanding consumer’s privacy concerns toward LBS is of increasing importance as mobile and positioning technologies develop and change with escalating speed. Drawing on the integrative social contract theory and the trust-risk model, we conducted an experiment study to examine the effects of LBS providers ’ interventions—third party privacy seals, P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences Project) compliance, and device-based privacy enhancing features—on building consumer trust and reducing privacy risk. Results indicated that service providers ’ interventions including joining third party privacy seal programs and introducing device-based privacy enhancing features could increase consumers ’ trust beliefs and mitigate their privacy risk perceptions. However, the proposed P3P compliance did not have a direct impact on

After decades of study, there is no consensus as to whether entrepreneurs have a higher risk propensity than do managers. We overcome a variety of limitations in narrative reviews by using psychometric meta-analysis to mathematically cumulate the literature on entrepreneurial risk propensity. The results indicate that entrepreneurs have at least a moderately higher level of risk propensity than do managers, a finding with important implications for further research. Entrepreneurial dispositions are a fundamental element in the development of a theory of the entrepreneur (Carland, Hoy, Boulton, & Carland, 1984; Johnson, 1990). Accordingly, inquiry has attempted to isolate and explain the psychological antecedents of entrepreneurial behavior. One of the most prominent themes is the entrepreneur’s propensity for risk taking (Carland et al., 1984; Long, 1983), or risk propensity, an individual’s willingness to take or avoid risk. While rich conceptualizations of entrepreneurial risk propensity have permeated the literature since Cantillion’s (circa 1700) description of the entrepreneur as a bearer of risk (Kilby, 1971), empirical evidence concerning the distinctiveness of the entrepreneur’s risk propensity appears inconsistent. Reviews of the literature (e.g., Brockhaus & Horwitz, 1986; Chell, 1985; Perry, 1990) have described the contradictory results in individual studies concerning hypothesized differences in the risk propensities of entrepreneurs and managers. As a result, reviewers have often concluded that entrepreneurs do not have a distinctive

Abstract: This study measures risk attitudes using two paid experiments: the Holt and Laury (2002) procedure and a variation of the game show Deal or No Deal. The participants also completed a series of personality questionnaires developed in the psychology literature including the risk domains of Weber, Blais, and Betz (2002). As in previous studies risk attitudes vary within subjects across elicitation methods. However, this variation can be explained by individual personality traits. Specifically, subjects behave as though the Holt and Laury task is an investment decision while the Deal or No Deal task is a gambling decision.

The authors would like to thank Dan Stone, Joe Brazel, workshop participants at the University of Kentucky, participants at the 2006 AAA annual meeting and participants at the 2006 Mid-South Doctoral Consortium for their helpful comments and suggestions. An Examination of Contextual Factors and Individual Characteristics Affecting Technology Implementation Decisions in Auditing Abstract: While computer-assisted audit techniques (CAATs) have the potential to increase efficiency and effectiveness of audit engagements, research in this area suggests that such techniques are under-utilized in public accounting. We propose that this condition is due to performance evaluation pressure and the use of budgets for multiple purposes, which result in the misalignment of firm and individual employee goals. We apply technology acceptance and budgeting theories to test this contention as well as potential organizational strategies for reducing the impediments to technology acceptance in the audit profession. Results from an experiment with experienced auditors suggest that firms have the ability to influence the implementation of new technology by using longer-term budget and evaluation periods and by communicating the approval of remote superiors regarding the software. In the absence of such firm interventions, individual characteristics of the auditor determine implementation decisions. Risk-seeking individuals are more likely to implement technology regardless of budget pressure, but for risk-averse individuals the decision to implement is positively related to perceived budget pressure.

This paper begins to answer the call to broaden current theories of individual decision-making by including in them the effects of human mood. Grounding our arguments in psychological literature on the effects of mood on information processing, motivation, and decision heuristics, we develop hypotheses about how mood can significantly affect individuals' use of structured decision protocols. In support of our hypotheses, results from an experimental study of complex decision-making suggest that, in situations where a structured decision protocol is the usual method of decision-making, individuals in moderately negative moods are significantly more likely than those in moderately positive moods to: (1) carefully execute all the steps of a structured decision protocol, (2) execute the steps of a structured decision protocol in the correct order, and (3) rely on the outcome of the structured decision protocol as the primary basis for the decision. We discuss these findings in terms of the...

To increase their revenue from electronic commerce, more and more Internet businesses are soliciting personal information from consumers so as to target products and services at the right consumers. But when deciding whether to disclose their personal information to Internet businesses, consumers tend to weigh the concerns of giving up information privacy against the benefits of information disclosure. This paper examines how Internet businesses can motivate consumers to disclose their personal information. Based on a synthesis of the literature, it identifies seven types of (extrinsic or intrinsic) benefits that Internet businesses can provide when soliciting personal information from consumers. Through comprehensive conceptual and empirical validation processes, it develops an instrument that allows Internet businesses to gauge the preference of consumers for the various types of benefits. By testing a set of nomological networks, it offers some ideas to Internet businesses about what types of benefits may be more effective given the personality traits of consumer populations. Besides providing a foundation for efforts at developing theories on information privacy and information disclosure, results of this research provide useful suggestions to Internet businesses on how best to solicit personal information from consumers. These implications for research and practice are discussed.

Innovation Management with primary focus on program and project management of innovation