DECISION-MAKING PROCESS OF STOCK INVESTMENT BEHAVIOR DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW AND MULTIPLE-CASE STUDY OF THAI INVESTORS

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a social and economic impact on stock market investors and the consequences were that investors changed their ways of making decisions and their stock investment behavior. This study aimed to study the factors affecting the decision-making of investors under pandemic circumstances through a multi-method design that included a systematic literature review and a multiple-case study of Thai investors. The systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA 2020 checklist. The five included studies were retrieved from academic databases, namely Scopus and ScienceDirect, and analyzed through narrative synthesis. The results of the systematic review revealed that decisions of multinational group of investors were affected by both environmental factors, namely COVID-19 cases and the time spent on the stock market, and psychological factors, namely expectations of pandemic risk and biases. From the results of the systematic review, factors affecting investment decisions were identified, and subsequently, they were used to create semi-structured interview questions for the second phase, the multiple-case study of Thai investors. The qualitative data was collected from nine experienced Thai investors, and analyzed by pattern matching. The results of the multiple-case study verified that decisions of Thai investors were affected by environmental factors, namely rising COVID-19 cases, and the psychological factors. Moreover, Thai investors perceived they had more time to search for information about stock investment, including the economic impact and news about effective vaccines. Thai investors also had emotions, such as fear of the unknown and anxiety about investment decisions. The results of this study would be appropriate for experienced Thai investors to acknowledge that their investment decisions were sometimes suboptimal because of their psychological states. The results also would be shared with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand so that they might consider guidelines on investing in stocks under high uncertainties. The future research could compare and study the factors affecting stock investment decisions in post-pandemic circumstances.

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