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Int. J. Process Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2014
Determining the factors which affect the stock
investment decisions of potential female
investors in Indonesia
Linda Ariany Mahastanti* and Edy Hariady
Management Department,
Satya Wacana Christian University,
Salatiga, Indonesia
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
*Corresponding author
Abstract: In recent years, the increasing number of career women has become
a new phenomenon in Indonesia. Women do not only become housewives, but
they can also work to earn additional income for the family. It encouraged
Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) to have a special programme to create a
promotion for potential female investors, since there have not been many
females who have become investors in the stock market. The purpose of this
paper is to look for the factors which influence the investments’ intentions,
especially for women in Indonesia, by applying the theory of planned
behaviour (TPB). This research used the TPB in order to describe more deeply
about the relationships between beliefs and behaviour. The theory states that
attitudes towards behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural
control, shape an individual’s behavioural intentions altogether. The study used
self-administered questionnaires which were distributed to the samples of
female lecturers in a university. The data was analysed with multiple regression
technique. This result indicated that the intention to buy financial products was
influenced by perceived behavioural control and risk preference, but it was not
affected by subjective norms and attitudes.
Keywords: theory of planned behaviour; TPB; financial literacy; risk
preference; Indonesia.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mahastanti, L.A. and
Hariady, E. (2014) ‘Determining the factors which affect the stock investment
decisions of potential female investors in Indonesia’, Int. J. Process
Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.186–197.
Biographical notes: Linda Ariany Mahastanti graduated from Satya Christian
University (Bachelor degree) and Gajah Mada University (Master degree).
Now, she has become a Lecturer in Satya wacana Christian University since
2004. Her interest research areas are behavioural finance and stock market.
Edy Hariady is a student of Linda Ariany Mahastanti and graduated with a
Bachelor degree at Satya Wacana Christian University since 2013.
This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Could
Indonesian women become interested to invest their money in financial
product?’ presented at the ICMAC (the International Conference on Managing
the Asian Century), James Cook University, Singapore, July 2013.
Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
1
187
Introduction
Indonesia has a potency to target women as potential new investors in capital market. In
term of population, the number of women in Indonesia is very high. Based on data from
the Central Statistics Agency, from the total amount of population (217 millions), the
number of females reached 49.8% or approximately 108 millions. The large number of
females indicates that they are potential as target markets of product investments, because
in Indonesian’s family culture, women are positioned as the ‘financial managers’.
Indonesian stock exchange is targeting two millions of investors in the capital market
during two or three years. Indonesian stock exchange has a breakthrough to achieve that
target with the women who closely step on it appropriately.
In general, women have some special abilities. Firstly, women are naturally worried
about their safety. Therefore, they are not reluctant to ask for directions or advice and
also like to absorb a lot of information. The natural impulse is closely aligned with the
strategy of investing in the stock market, where investors are required to seek investment
advice and gather a lot of information before deciding to buy or sell the stocks. Secondly,
women also have intuitions or higher sensitivity and are able to understand the cycle
better. This ability is also very important to do the investment in the stock market. In
addition, to analyse the stock market, the investors must be sensitive and good at
understanding the trends. Stock market investors must keep on tracks and understand the
cycle of stock price fluctuations (Graham et al., 2002).
Indonesian women have beliefs and norms that would be different with the women
from other countries. In Indonesian culture, people always think that women only have
the second position in the society. Women do not have power to make decision in their
families. Women usually always follow the men or their husbands to make decisions. If
they want to make decisions in investment, it will be difficult, because they do not have
any experiences and the courage to make huge decisions in investment in the capital
market. It happens because women are more risk averse to manage their money. Women
usually make investment in real assets, like property, gold, but not in financial products
which are sold by the capital market. Al-Ajmi (2011) said that in emerging markets
(Bahrain), the male investors particularly tended to be more risk-tolerant than the female
investors. Investors with low level of education and wealth would like to take higher risk.
However, investors who have higher ages would like to reduce the level of risk and more
likely to think about retirement. Graham et al. (2002) revealed that there are gender
differences in taking a risk; women are more risk aversion (dislike risks) than men.
Barber and Odean (2001) found in his research that women have different attitudes
towards money and investing than men.
There is an emerging evidence that women are ‘shy away from competition’ to quote
Niederle and Vesterlund (2007). This pattern has also been found for example by Gneezy
et al. (2003) or Dohmen and Falk (2006). The less competitive behaviour of women may
be seen as typical. It is also applied to higher risk aversion as fund managers do not aim
for maximum returns but for risks. It is perfectly possible that there is an ongoing selfselection mechanism among women in becoming fund or financial managers. If so, it
supports the hypothesis of ‘expertise dominates gender’. Interestingly, recent researches
indicate that women react on incentives – which are extremely strong in fund
management – as men do (Niessen and Ruenzil, 2006).
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This research would extend most former studies towards the phenomenon in
Indonesia and literature review results. By using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB)
in this research, the researchers wanted to know about the women’s intentions to invest
their money in financial products in Indonesia. Women’s intentions to buy financial
products are not only influenced by their financial literacies and risk preferences, but also
their norms, beliefs and perceived behavioural control (according to TPB). This theory
would be useful in explaining the behavioural investments of women, especially in
Indonesia, a country which has many kinds of norms and beliefs. Chen and Volpe (1998)
deduce that an individual’s level of financial knowledge influences his/her opinions and
affects his/her decisions. Lusardi and Mitchell (2006) and Alleyne and Broome (2011)
argue that their review revealed that many persons do not have adequate knowledge of
basic economic concepts which are required to make investment decisions. Thus, there is
a need to conduct a research to analyse the factors, other than knowledge, that might also
influence investment decisions.
The purpose of this paper is to look for the factors influencing the investment
intentions by applying the TPB. It used behavioural psychology and management theory
to explore the investment decisions of future investors. We assume that the investors are
desirous of constructing portfolios of investments that suit their return requirements and
risk propensity best. Investors can be risk-averse, risk-neutral or risk-seeking. Thus, we
would like to understand how risk affects investment decision-making. On the other
hand, this research added some of demographic characteristics, like income, major and
marital status. Those variables became the controlling variables which explain some other
influences of investment decisions.
2
Literature review
This study would find out women’s interests in investing in financial products more
deeply. Previous research Barber and Odean (2001) said that women tend to be afraid of
taking risks more than men, so they are not willing to make any decisions in investing.
There is an emerging evidence that women are ‘shy away from competition’ to quote
Niederle and Vesterlund (2007). This pattern has also been found for example by Gneezy
et al. (2003) or Chen and Volpe (1998). As it has already seemed to exist among young
children (Niederle and Vesterlund, 2007), the less competitive behaviour of women may
be seen as a typical behaviour. Previous studies have shown that an individual’s
investment behaviour has been linked to specific areas, like attitudes to risk. Paarsch and
Shearer (2007) argued that any focus on particular financial issues may not be a good
indicator of one’s attitudes and behaviour towards financial matters. However, attitudes
can be quite influential in explaining an individual’s investment behaviour.
In particular, several researchers have used social psychological theories, for example
Ajzen (1991), to explain behavioural intentions in the investment context. This current
study is aimed to explore the influence of potential investors’ attitudes, social influence,
control beliefs and other factors on their intentions to invest in different ventures or
business opportunities. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) stated that ‘past
behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour’. Thus, he further argued that attitudes
might influence one’s behaviour. The TPB is very useful to explain the intention of
Indonesian women in investing their money in financial products. This is important
because Indonesian has a unique culture about women. Norms, beliefs and controls in
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
189
their social community are very different with Western countries. In eastern culture,
women are unequal with men. It can influence whether they want to invest their money or
not. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) defined attitudes toward behaviour as
“the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of
the behavior in question”. They also defined subjective norms as “the perceived social
pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior” (Ajzen, 1991; Alleyne and Broome
2011). Subjective norm refers to the influence of one’s peers, family and referent others
in performing the behaviour. In the culture of Indonesian women, family members and
friends have big influences in making references before they make decisions because they
have good relationships. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) defined perceived
behavioural control as “the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior which
is assumed as the reflection of past experience as well as anticipation of impediments and
obstacles”. The perception of the degree of ease or difficulty of performing an action can
encourage or inhibit the performance of the actual behaviour. Attitudes, perceived
behavioural control and subjective norms have been proposed to influence behavioural
intentions and actual behaviour. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) stated that
“as a general rule, the more favorable the attitude and subjective norm towards the
behaviour and the greater the perceived behavioral control, the stronger an individual’s
intention to perform the behavior under consideration”.
Potential investors are very sensitive about risks. It happened because they have
perception of assessment about gain or loss with the investment. Specifically,
investments in start-up businesses are considered riskier than other investment options
(Mason and Harrison, 2002; Ganzach et al., 2008; Alleyne and Broome, 2011). This is
the opportunity to the Indonesian women to make decisions in financial product
investments, because they do not have enough experiences about investment that make
them afraid of investing.
Indonesian women have subjective norms from their community, usually their friends
and family, when they want to make decisions in investment. Family members and
friends usually give recommendations and opinions about their behaviours in investing
their money. It happened because Indonesian culture always made perception that women
are not strong enough when making decisions. Besides, our tradition always positions
women behind the men. It made women usually feel afraid when they have to make
important decisions, like investing in financial products. Even though they have
capabilities and knowledge about financial products, women mostly do not have enough
confidence to invest in financial products. It reduced their behavioural intentions in
investing.
Thus, this study would like to explore whether the three individual-level antecedents
of the TPB as well as risk propensity can significantly predict intentions to invest among
the future investors. Based on the review of literature, the researchers provide these
following hypotheses:
H1
Attitudes will influence the intentions of investing in financial products.
H2
Subjective norms will influence the intentions of investing in financial products.
H3
Perceived behavioural control will influence the intentions of investing in financial
products.
H4
Risk propensity will influence the intentions of investing in financial products.
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Research methodology
This study selected samples of women who have knowledge in financial products. The
sample is some female lecturers in the Faculty of Economics and Business, Satya Wacana
Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia. The data was collected by using questionnaires
with cross sectional design during 2012.
3.1 Development of instrument
To evaluate the relationship between planned behaviour and investment decisions, the
researchers formulated a survey questionnaire. The initial questionnaire was piloted to
clarify all ambiguities and unclear questions, as well as to choose applicable scenarios
that meet the focus of the study. The remainder of this section describes the structure of
the questionnaire. Firstly, the questionnaire requested respondents’ demographic data,
such as salary, marital status and educational backgrounds. Attitudes, subjective norms,
perceived behavioural control and intentions to invest were adapted from East (1993)
study. The researchers extended the research to include two aspects of risk, namely two
scenarios (highly risk and low risk) and the (Sitkin and Weingart, 1995) risk propensity
scale.
3.2 Dependent variables
The intention to invest was measured by using a three-item scale, adapted from East
(1993), Brown et al. (1996) and Alleyne and Broome (2011). The questions or statements
used were ‘I plan to buy shares in a public company in the future’, ‘If I have the
opportunity, I will buy shares in a public company in the future’ and ‘I will never buy
shares in a public company within the next 12 months’. All items were measured by
using a five-point Likert’s scale, ranging from 1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely
likely. The items were combined to form an average score. Higher scores on this scale
represent higher intentions in investing.
3.3 Independent variables
The attitudes of investing were measured by using five-point fully anchored semantic
differential scales, ranging from 1 to 5. Respondents were asked to state their attitudes in
applying shares in an established public company. In this study, the researchers utilised
scales which have been widely used and found to have high internal reliability in prior
research (East, 1993; Ajzen, 1991; Brown et al., 1996; Carpenter and Reimers, 2005;
Alleyne and Broome, 2011). Based on the responses from the pilot stage of this
questionnaire, it was thought that the choice of these scenarios posed the two extreme
points of the level of risk associated with investing in this environment by using the
TPB and risk propensity to measure the investment intentions and asked whether the
decisions were: ‘bad-good’, ‘foolish-wise’, ‘punishing-rewarding’, ‘unpleasant-pleasant’
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
191
and ‘unbeneficial-beneficial’. The items were combined to form an average score. Higher
scores on this scale represent more positive attitudes.
Subjective norms were measured using a three-item scale, adapted from East (1993),
Brown et al. (1996) and Alleyne and Broome (2011). The questions used were ‘Most
people who are important to me would think that I should buy shares in a public
company’, ‘People who are important to me think that buying shares in a public company
is a good idea’ and ‘People who are important to me think that buying shares in a public
company would be a wise idea’. All items were measured using a five-point Likert’s
scale, ranging from 1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely. The items were
combined to form an average score. Higher scores on this scale represent higher
attachment to the referent groups.
Perceived behavioural control was measured by using three items adapted from East
(1993) and Alleyne and Broome (2011). The questions used were ‘If I want to buy shares
in a public company, I can easily do it so’, ‘I have the knowledge to buy shares in a
public company’ and ‘here is plenty of opportunity for me to buy shares in a public
company’. All three measures were analysed based on five-point Likert’s scale, ranging
from 1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely. The items were combined to form an
average score. Higher scores on this scale represent higher perceived behavioural control
towards the behaviour.
Risk propensity was measured by using a five-item scale adopted from Alleyne and
Broome (2011) which was developed by Sitkin-Weingart business risk propensity scale.
It was modified to address a generic business situation. The questions adopted the
(Sitkin and Weingart) scale, which were ‘How likely are you to choose more or less risky
alternatives based on the assessment of others to whom you must rely on?’, ‘How likely
are you to choose more or less risky alternatives which could have a major impact on
your future?’, ‘How likely are you to choose more or less risky alternatives which rely on
analyses in high technical complexity?’, ‘How likely are you to initiate a financial action
which has the potential to be a backfire?’, ‘How likely are you to support a decision when
you are aware that relevant analyses were done while missing several pieces of
information?’. All items were measured by using a five-point Likert’s scale, ranging from
1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely. The items were combined to form a ten
Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies average score. Higher scores on this scale
represent more positive attitudes towards risk.
After the data had been collected, then the researchers tested its reliability and
validity. Furthermore, the data was processed by using multiple regressions to determine
whether any variables affect the women’s behavioural intention to invest in financial
products.
3.4 Statistical models
Y = α + β1 X1 + β2 X2 + β3 X3 + β4 X4 + β2 X5 + β3 X6+ β4 X7 (Y: behavioural
intention, X1 = attitudes, X2 = subjective norm, X3 = perceive behavioural control,
X4 = risk preferences, X5 = marital status, X6 = major, X7 = income).
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
Discussion
The data collected consisted of 50 respondents. Based on this data, the researchers
viewed the individual characteristics of each respondent.
Table 1
The characteristics of the respondents
Educational
background
(%)
Marital
status
(%)
Salary
(IDR)
Major
(%)
35%
Finance
58%
Bachelor’s
degree
3% Married 90%
Master’s
degree
93% Single
10%
> 5.000.000– 35% Non-finance 42% Land and 34%
7.000.000
property
Doctoral’s
degree
3%
100%
> 7.000.000 30%
Total
100
Total
3.000.000–
5.000.000
Product
(%)
investment
(%)
Total
100
Total
100
Gold
37%
Stocks
2%
Deposits
27%
Total
100
The majority of the respondents in this study were married women who had Master’s
degrees and had sufficient financial knowledge. One exciting thing of the above
phenomenon was, although they had sufficient knowledge in finance and enough salary,
but none of them were interested to invest in the stock market. Most women actually
invest in gold, deposits or property in which they considered more secure. This indicated
that women do tend to be more risk averse in making investment decisions by choosing
safe investment products.
Table 2
Variable score ‘TPB’
TPB variable
Mean
Result
Attitudes
2.873
Moderate
Subjective norm
2.912
Moderate
4.2
High
Pref_risiko
2.869
Moderate
Behavioural intention
3.222
Moderate
Perceive behavioural control
The respondents had high perception about perceive behavioural control. It happened
because they have educational background which supported their knowledge in financial
products. It is different with attitude and subjective norm, they just had moderate score. It
means that their environments, like family members and friends, did not support them to
make investment in financial products and they had perception that investment in
financial products were bad, mostly because stock was more closely related to gambling
and it was prohibited by their religions. On the other hand, the scores of behavioural
intention also showed moderate which means that they were also still doubtful to invest
in financial products.
The following information would describe the influence of TPB and risk preference
toward the intention in buying financial products in the stock market.
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
Table 3
193
The influences of TPB theory and risk preference toward the intention in buying
financial products
Variable
Standarised coef. beta
Constant
Sign
0.129
Attitudes
–0.153
0.27
Subjective norms
0.026
0.858
Perceived behavioural control
0.543
.001**
Risk preference
0.276
.055*
Marital_st
–0.155
0.328
Major
0.076
0.624
Income
0.313
.027**
R2
0.561
Anova
0.00
Notes: ***sig. 0.01, **sig. 0.05, *sig. 0.1
The results of the regression analysis show that perceived behavioural control affects the
intention to buy financial products. This is in line with the research conducted by Alleyne
and Broome (2011). It occured because women felt confident and believed that they had
the opportunities and enough knowledge to invest in financial products. This conviction
arose because the respondents in this study were lecturers in the faculty of economics and
business, who had an educational background in finance. Besides, actually the women in
Indonesia have plenty opportunity to buy financial product, it happens because security
companies have great promotion programmes for potential female investors.
The next variable that is also significant is risk preferences. Risk preference is very
important for women because women have more risk-averse tendencies. Women usually
love secure product investments like gold, property and deposit, although the level of
return that they will receive is low. It is evidence that the risk preferences of women
affect their behavioural intention in investing. Alleyne and Broome (2011) also stated
that the risk preferences affect a person’s intention to invest. Table 2 shows that there is
one control variable that has significant value in determining the intentions to buy
financial product; i.e., income. Women who have enough income want to invest their
money in financial products. Beckmann and Menkhoff (2008) stated that investors with a
higher level of income invest their funds in more dynamic portfolios which are composed
by more dynamic stocks.
Based on the results of data analysis, there is only one significant variable, i.e.,
Perceived behavioural control, while the others, such as subjective norms and attitudes,
do not have any significant effect towards intentions to buy financial products. Subjective
norms and attitudes that exist in the culture of Indonesian women always think that
investing in the stock market is something terrible because it has high risk. Besides, the
people and family members who are around them also do not provide any supports to
invest in the capital market. This lack of support and the belief that investing in the stock
market is risky made Indonesian women do not have behavioral intentions to buy
financial products. Some of women in Indonesia think that investment in financial
products, like stock is not ‘halal’ (prohibited to buy because it is considered sinful to a
particular religion), because buying stocks has high risk and is considered a gambling
(Yulianti, 2010). Another reason is that women in Indonesia have unique characteristics
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
especially to make sure about financial security for the future of their family. Married
women have more responsibility to manage finance in their families. This perception
must be changed. The way to make their financial secure is not only by just keeping their
money in deposits, but also by doing stock investment. Stock investment has a long term
benefit. If women want to make their finance secure for the future, they must have good
plannings in investment and have several other financial goals for their retirements.
Though women are risk averse, they must realise that keeping all their funds in the forms
of ‘safe’ investments will make it difficult to reach their financial goals. Taxes and
inflations will spend their small returns and the best thing that they can do is ‘treading the
water’, if they are lucky enough. Stock investments, which are riskier than some other
investment, also provide the opportunity to beat inflations over a long period and build a
solid foundation. Buying and holding good companies for a long term is a way to build a
‘nest egg’.
Asset allocation is one of those investing terms that would be learned. In other words,
the people can spread their money in some ‘spots’, so it is not all invested in one spot.
They will be seen as its common sense immediately. The important thing to remember is
that it is a continual process that they must always have in their minds as they begin
investing. If they start out with this mindset, their investments will be in a better position
as the years go by.
It would be better if when the women make decision in stock investments for the first
time, they must get good advice from the financial planners (who are supported by
security firms). They may consider a financial planner as a family doctor; a general
practitioner who knows their family situation and history. This person creates an overall
plan that is taken into account income, debts, expenses, taxes, insurance needs, retirement
goals and dreams to buy a house, a cottage or a car. Besides that, there are specialists.
The investment advisors will help them to build a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds and
funds; the estate planners will advise them about inheritance and tax laws; the personal
bankers will help them with loans or mutual funds. Nowadays, most investment advisors
charge a management fee based on the size of their portfolios. As their portfolio grows,
they become wealthier and the investment advisors will earn more, so everyone is
satisfied. The planners, on the other hand tend to charge a flat fee for their advice and
then they see specialists to obtain each specific solution.
The results of the research indicate that the Jakarta stock exchange (JSX) must have a
special programme to socialise the financial products for Indonesian women. The
promotion programme can be done by using cultural and religion approach. It is
important because most women in Indonesia are still strongly tied to cultural values and
religion. Financial products are suitable for women in Indonesia. Furthermore, they will
lead to the mutual funds or ‘syariah’ products (financial products that contain religious
elements), in which the mutual funds and ‘syariah’ product have lower risk than stocks.
Moreover, investments in mutual funds do not require a lot of funds. Investing in mutual
funds can be done in groups with a combination of several female investors. Mutual
funds are also considered to be more secure because they are managed by professional
investment managers from the security companies. The socialisation of financial products
that will be conducted by the JSX would be better if it is done in the communities of
Indonesian women, such as the PKK (a women’s associations which meet regularly once
a month) members. This association almost exists in every city in Indonesia. Through this
association, it is expected that more Indonesian women will be braver to invest in
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
195
financial products because they get the endorsement from their environments, such as
their friends and family members.
Indonesian women have been proved to have the characteristics of risk-averse.
Therefore, Indonesian stock exchange should provide trainings about how to invest in
stocks and what benefits that can be received by doing it.
5
Conclusions
The results of this study indicated that women in Indonesia had some abilities, such as
enough salary and knowledge of financial products. The problem that they faced was the
lack of support from their environments. It happened because their friends and family did
not support them to invest in financial products, since they considered investing in
financial products as a bad thing because financial products had high risks. Another
reason of why Indonesian women had fewer interests in investing their money in
financial market was because they needed to secure the family’s financial in the future.
Finally, the last reason was about their perception about stock investments that were
considered as not ‘halal’. Indonesia is one of countries that have the largest Moslem
populations in the world. The concept of ‘halal’ in investment is very important for them.
JSX must consider financial products with ‘syariah’ labels, because this products can be
more attractive compared to the conventional stock investments.
Therefore, the JSX must have special programmes to make Indonesian women
become more interested in investing in financial products that are traded in the capital
market. The approach can be done by doing promotions and socialisations through local
groups, such as the PKK. PKK is expected to provide social supports for Indonesian
women about investing. Financial products which will be promoted to Indonesian women
should be more specific, like ‘syariah’ mutual fund. This product is also less risky than
stock investment.
6
Limitation and suggestions for future research
The respondents of this study are limited to women who worked as lecturers at The
Faculty of Economics and Business of Satya Wacana Christian University, in which most
of them have already had good understanding about financial products. In the future
research, the respondents should not only come from one kind of professions, but it
should also involve some other professions. The diversity of the respondents should be
able to explain about the understanding of financial products more deeply. Different
knowledge about financial products is suspected to influence perceived behavioural
control that ultimately affects behavioural intentions in investing. One more thing that
has not captured in this research is about religion perception in investing financial
products. Religion perception becomes an important variable that can influence
behavioural intention of Indonesian women, because they have strong relations with their
religions.
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
Acknowledgements
I extend thanks to Edy Hariady who have become partners in the writing of this article
and anonymous reviewer that have provided input and assistance during the revision
process of this article. In addition I also wish to thank Dr. John Vong who has given me
the opportunity to publish this paper in the International Journal of Process Management
and Benchmarking.
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investment strategies: an information processing perspective’, International Journal of Bank
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capital investments’, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp.211–236.
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too much?’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 122, No. 3, pp.1067–1101.
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No. 06–01, University of Cologne.
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Paarsch, H.J. and Shearer, B.S. (2007) ‘Do women react differently to incentives? Evidence from
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mediating role of risk perceptions and propensity’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 38,
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Vol. 11, No.1, pp.18–38.
Int. J. Process Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2014
Determining the factors which affect the stock
investment decisions of potential female
investors in Indonesia
Linda Ariany Mahastanti* and Edy Hariady
Management Department,
Satya Wacana Christian University,
Salatiga, Indonesia
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
*Corresponding author
Abstract: In recent years, the increasing number of career women has become
a new phenomenon in Indonesia. Women do not only become housewives, but
they can also work to earn additional income for the family. It encouraged
Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) to have a special programme to create a
promotion for potential female investors, since there have not been many
females who have become investors in the stock market. The purpose of this
paper is to look for the factors which influence the investments’ intentions,
especially for women in Indonesia, by applying the theory of planned
behaviour (TPB). This research used the TPB in order to describe more deeply
about the relationships between beliefs and behaviour. The theory states that
attitudes towards behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural
control, shape an individual’s behavioural intentions altogether. The study used
self-administered questionnaires which were distributed to the samples of
female lecturers in a university. The data was analysed with multiple regression
technique. This result indicated that the intention to buy financial products was
influenced by perceived behavioural control and risk preference, but it was not
affected by subjective norms and attitudes.
Keywords: theory of planned behaviour; TPB; financial literacy; risk
preference; Indonesia.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mahastanti, L.A. and
Hariady, E. (2014) ‘Determining the factors which affect the stock investment
decisions of potential female investors in Indonesia’, Int. J. Process
Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.186–197.
Biographical notes: Linda Ariany Mahastanti graduated from Satya Christian
University (Bachelor degree) and Gajah Mada University (Master degree).
Now, she has become a Lecturer in Satya wacana Christian University since
2004. Her interest research areas are behavioural finance and stock market.
Edy Hariady is a student of Linda Ariany Mahastanti and graduated with a
Bachelor degree at Satya Wacana Christian University since 2013.
This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Could
Indonesian women become interested to invest their money in financial
product?’ presented at the ICMAC (the International Conference on Managing
the Asian Century), James Cook University, Singapore, July 2013.
Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
1
187
Introduction
Indonesia has a potency to target women as potential new investors in capital market. In
term of population, the number of women in Indonesia is very high. Based on data from
the Central Statistics Agency, from the total amount of population (217 millions), the
number of females reached 49.8% or approximately 108 millions. The large number of
females indicates that they are potential as target markets of product investments, because
in Indonesian’s family culture, women are positioned as the ‘financial managers’.
Indonesian stock exchange is targeting two millions of investors in the capital market
during two or three years. Indonesian stock exchange has a breakthrough to achieve that
target with the women who closely step on it appropriately.
In general, women have some special abilities. Firstly, women are naturally worried
about their safety. Therefore, they are not reluctant to ask for directions or advice and
also like to absorb a lot of information. The natural impulse is closely aligned with the
strategy of investing in the stock market, where investors are required to seek investment
advice and gather a lot of information before deciding to buy or sell the stocks. Secondly,
women also have intuitions or higher sensitivity and are able to understand the cycle
better. This ability is also very important to do the investment in the stock market. In
addition, to analyse the stock market, the investors must be sensitive and good at
understanding the trends. Stock market investors must keep on tracks and understand the
cycle of stock price fluctuations (Graham et al., 2002).
Indonesian women have beliefs and norms that would be different with the women
from other countries. In Indonesian culture, people always think that women only have
the second position in the society. Women do not have power to make decision in their
families. Women usually always follow the men or their husbands to make decisions. If
they want to make decisions in investment, it will be difficult, because they do not have
any experiences and the courage to make huge decisions in investment in the capital
market. It happens because women are more risk averse to manage their money. Women
usually make investment in real assets, like property, gold, but not in financial products
which are sold by the capital market. Al-Ajmi (2011) said that in emerging markets
(Bahrain), the male investors particularly tended to be more risk-tolerant than the female
investors. Investors with low level of education and wealth would like to take higher risk.
However, investors who have higher ages would like to reduce the level of risk and more
likely to think about retirement. Graham et al. (2002) revealed that there are gender
differences in taking a risk; women are more risk aversion (dislike risks) than men.
Barber and Odean (2001) found in his research that women have different attitudes
towards money and investing than men.
There is an emerging evidence that women are ‘shy away from competition’ to quote
Niederle and Vesterlund (2007). This pattern has also been found for example by Gneezy
et al. (2003) or Dohmen and Falk (2006). The less competitive behaviour of women may
be seen as typical. It is also applied to higher risk aversion as fund managers do not aim
for maximum returns but for risks. It is perfectly possible that there is an ongoing selfselection mechanism among women in becoming fund or financial managers. If so, it
supports the hypothesis of ‘expertise dominates gender’. Interestingly, recent researches
indicate that women react on incentives – which are extremely strong in fund
management – as men do (Niessen and Ruenzil, 2006).
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
This research would extend most former studies towards the phenomenon in
Indonesia and literature review results. By using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB)
in this research, the researchers wanted to know about the women’s intentions to invest
their money in financial products in Indonesia. Women’s intentions to buy financial
products are not only influenced by their financial literacies and risk preferences, but also
their norms, beliefs and perceived behavioural control (according to TPB). This theory
would be useful in explaining the behavioural investments of women, especially in
Indonesia, a country which has many kinds of norms and beliefs. Chen and Volpe (1998)
deduce that an individual’s level of financial knowledge influences his/her opinions and
affects his/her decisions. Lusardi and Mitchell (2006) and Alleyne and Broome (2011)
argue that their review revealed that many persons do not have adequate knowledge of
basic economic concepts which are required to make investment decisions. Thus, there is
a need to conduct a research to analyse the factors, other than knowledge, that might also
influence investment decisions.
The purpose of this paper is to look for the factors influencing the investment
intentions by applying the TPB. It used behavioural psychology and management theory
to explore the investment decisions of future investors. We assume that the investors are
desirous of constructing portfolios of investments that suit their return requirements and
risk propensity best. Investors can be risk-averse, risk-neutral or risk-seeking. Thus, we
would like to understand how risk affects investment decision-making. On the other
hand, this research added some of demographic characteristics, like income, major and
marital status. Those variables became the controlling variables which explain some other
influences of investment decisions.
2
Literature review
This study would find out women’s interests in investing in financial products more
deeply. Previous research Barber and Odean (2001) said that women tend to be afraid of
taking risks more than men, so they are not willing to make any decisions in investing.
There is an emerging evidence that women are ‘shy away from competition’ to quote
Niederle and Vesterlund (2007). This pattern has also been found for example by Gneezy
et al. (2003) or Chen and Volpe (1998). As it has already seemed to exist among young
children (Niederle and Vesterlund, 2007), the less competitive behaviour of women may
be seen as a typical behaviour. Previous studies have shown that an individual’s
investment behaviour has been linked to specific areas, like attitudes to risk. Paarsch and
Shearer (2007) argued that any focus on particular financial issues may not be a good
indicator of one’s attitudes and behaviour towards financial matters. However, attitudes
can be quite influential in explaining an individual’s investment behaviour.
In particular, several researchers have used social psychological theories, for example
Ajzen (1991), to explain behavioural intentions in the investment context. This current
study is aimed to explore the influence of potential investors’ attitudes, social influence,
control beliefs and other factors on their intentions to invest in different ventures or
business opportunities. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) stated that ‘past
behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour’. Thus, he further argued that attitudes
might influence one’s behaviour. The TPB is very useful to explain the intention of
Indonesian women in investing their money in financial products. This is important
because Indonesian has a unique culture about women. Norms, beliefs and controls in
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
189
their social community are very different with Western countries. In eastern culture,
women are unequal with men. It can influence whether they want to invest their money or
not. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) defined attitudes toward behaviour as
“the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of
the behavior in question”. They also defined subjective norms as “the perceived social
pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior” (Ajzen, 1991; Alleyne and Broome
2011). Subjective norm refers to the influence of one’s peers, family and referent others
in performing the behaviour. In the culture of Indonesian women, family members and
friends have big influences in making references before they make decisions because they
have good relationships. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) defined perceived
behavioural control as “the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior which
is assumed as the reflection of past experience as well as anticipation of impediments and
obstacles”. The perception of the degree of ease or difficulty of performing an action can
encourage or inhibit the performance of the actual behaviour. Attitudes, perceived
behavioural control and subjective norms have been proposed to influence behavioural
intentions and actual behaviour. Ajzen (1991) and Alleyne and Broome (2011) stated that
“as a general rule, the more favorable the attitude and subjective norm towards the
behaviour and the greater the perceived behavioral control, the stronger an individual’s
intention to perform the behavior under consideration”.
Potential investors are very sensitive about risks. It happened because they have
perception of assessment about gain or loss with the investment. Specifically,
investments in start-up businesses are considered riskier than other investment options
(Mason and Harrison, 2002; Ganzach et al., 2008; Alleyne and Broome, 2011). This is
the opportunity to the Indonesian women to make decisions in financial product
investments, because they do not have enough experiences about investment that make
them afraid of investing.
Indonesian women have subjective norms from their community, usually their friends
and family, when they want to make decisions in investment. Family members and
friends usually give recommendations and opinions about their behaviours in investing
their money. It happened because Indonesian culture always made perception that women
are not strong enough when making decisions. Besides, our tradition always positions
women behind the men. It made women usually feel afraid when they have to make
important decisions, like investing in financial products. Even though they have
capabilities and knowledge about financial products, women mostly do not have enough
confidence to invest in financial products. It reduced their behavioural intentions in
investing.
Thus, this study would like to explore whether the three individual-level antecedents
of the TPB as well as risk propensity can significantly predict intentions to invest among
the future investors. Based on the review of literature, the researchers provide these
following hypotheses:
H1
Attitudes will influence the intentions of investing in financial products.
H2
Subjective norms will influence the intentions of investing in financial products.
H3
Perceived behavioural control will influence the intentions of investing in financial
products.
H4
Risk propensity will influence the intentions of investing in financial products.
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Research methodology
This study selected samples of women who have knowledge in financial products. The
sample is some female lecturers in the Faculty of Economics and Business, Satya Wacana
Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia. The data was collected by using questionnaires
with cross sectional design during 2012.
3.1 Development of instrument
To evaluate the relationship between planned behaviour and investment decisions, the
researchers formulated a survey questionnaire. The initial questionnaire was piloted to
clarify all ambiguities and unclear questions, as well as to choose applicable scenarios
that meet the focus of the study. The remainder of this section describes the structure of
the questionnaire. Firstly, the questionnaire requested respondents’ demographic data,
such as salary, marital status and educational backgrounds. Attitudes, subjective norms,
perceived behavioural control and intentions to invest were adapted from East (1993)
study. The researchers extended the research to include two aspects of risk, namely two
scenarios (highly risk and low risk) and the (Sitkin and Weingart, 1995) risk propensity
scale.
3.2 Dependent variables
The intention to invest was measured by using a three-item scale, adapted from East
(1993), Brown et al. (1996) and Alleyne and Broome (2011). The questions or statements
used were ‘I plan to buy shares in a public company in the future’, ‘If I have the
opportunity, I will buy shares in a public company in the future’ and ‘I will never buy
shares in a public company within the next 12 months’. All items were measured by
using a five-point Likert’s scale, ranging from 1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely
likely. The items were combined to form an average score. Higher scores on this scale
represent higher intentions in investing.
3.3 Independent variables
The attitudes of investing were measured by using five-point fully anchored semantic
differential scales, ranging from 1 to 5. Respondents were asked to state their attitudes in
applying shares in an established public company. In this study, the researchers utilised
scales which have been widely used and found to have high internal reliability in prior
research (East, 1993; Ajzen, 1991; Brown et al., 1996; Carpenter and Reimers, 2005;
Alleyne and Broome, 2011). Based on the responses from the pilot stage of this
questionnaire, it was thought that the choice of these scenarios posed the two extreme
points of the level of risk associated with investing in this environment by using the
TPB and risk propensity to measure the investment intentions and asked whether the
decisions were: ‘bad-good’, ‘foolish-wise’, ‘punishing-rewarding’, ‘unpleasant-pleasant’
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
191
and ‘unbeneficial-beneficial’. The items were combined to form an average score. Higher
scores on this scale represent more positive attitudes.
Subjective norms were measured using a three-item scale, adapted from East (1993),
Brown et al. (1996) and Alleyne and Broome (2011). The questions used were ‘Most
people who are important to me would think that I should buy shares in a public
company’, ‘People who are important to me think that buying shares in a public company
is a good idea’ and ‘People who are important to me think that buying shares in a public
company would be a wise idea’. All items were measured using a five-point Likert’s
scale, ranging from 1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely. The items were
combined to form an average score. Higher scores on this scale represent higher
attachment to the referent groups.
Perceived behavioural control was measured by using three items adapted from East
(1993) and Alleyne and Broome (2011). The questions used were ‘If I want to buy shares
in a public company, I can easily do it so’, ‘I have the knowledge to buy shares in a
public company’ and ‘here is plenty of opportunity for me to buy shares in a public
company’. All three measures were analysed based on five-point Likert’s scale, ranging
from 1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely. The items were combined to form an
average score. Higher scores on this scale represent higher perceived behavioural control
towards the behaviour.
Risk propensity was measured by using a five-item scale adopted from Alleyne and
Broome (2011) which was developed by Sitkin-Weingart business risk propensity scale.
It was modified to address a generic business situation. The questions adopted the
(Sitkin and Weingart) scale, which were ‘How likely are you to choose more or less risky
alternatives based on the assessment of others to whom you must rely on?’, ‘How likely
are you to choose more or less risky alternatives which could have a major impact on
your future?’, ‘How likely are you to choose more or less risky alternatives which rely on
analyses in high technical complexity?’, ‘How likely are you to initiate a financial action
which has the potential to be a backfire?’, ‘How likely are you to support a decision when
you are aware that relevant analyses were done while missing several pieces of
information?’. All items were measured by using a five-point Likert’s scale, ranging from
1 = extremely unlikely to 5 = extremely likely. The items were combined to form a ten
Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies average score. Higher scores on this scale
represent more positive attitudes towards risk.
After the data had been collected, then the researchers tested its reliability and
validity. Furthermore, the data was processed by using multiple regressions to determine
whether any variables affect the women’s behavioural intention to invest in financial
products.
3.4 Statistical models
Y = α + β1 X1 + β2 X2 + β3 X3 + β4 X4 + β2 X5 + β3 X6+ β4 X7 (Y: behavioural
intention, X1 = attitudes, X2 = subjective norm, X3 = perceive behavioural control,
X4 = risk preferences, X5 = marital status, X6 = major, X7 = income).
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
Discussion
The data collected consisted of 50 respondents. Based on this data, the researchers
viewed the individual characteristics of each respondent.
Table 1
The characteristics of the respondents
Educational
background
(%)
Marital
status
(%)
Salary
(IDR)
Major
(%)
35%
Finance
58%
Bachelor’s
degree
3% Married 90%
Master’s
degree
93% Single
10%
> 5.000.000– 35% Non-finance 42% Land and 34%
7.000.000
property
Doctoral’s
degree
3%
100%
> 7.000.000 30%
Total
100
Total
3.000.000–
5.000.000
Product
(%)
investment
(%)
Total
100
Total
100
Gold
37%
Stocks
2%
Deposits
27%
Total
100
The majority of the respondents in this study were married women who had Master’s
degrees and had sufficient financial knowledge. One exciting thing of the above
phenomenon was, although they had sufficient knowledge in finance and enough salary,
but none of them were interested to invest in the stock market. Most women actually
invest in gold, deposits or property in which they considered more secure. This indicated
that women do tend to be more risk averse in making investment decisions by choosing
safe investment products.
Table 2
Variable score ‘TPB’
TPB variable
Mean
Result
Attitudes
2.873
Moderate
Subjective norm
2.912
Moderate
4.2
High
Pref_risiko
2.869
Moderate
Behavioural intention
3.222
Moderate
Perceive behavioural control
The respondents had high perception about perceive behavioural control. It happened
because they have educational background which supported their knowledge in financial
products. It is different with attitude and subjective norm, they just had moderate score. It
means that their environments, like family members and friends, did not support them to
make investment in financial products and they had perception that investment in
financial products were bad, mostly because stock was more closely related to gambling
and it was prohibited by their religions. On the other hand, the scores of behavioural
intention also showed moderate which means that they were also still doubtful to invest
in financial products.
The following information would describe the influence of TPB and risk preference
toward the intention in buying financial products in the stock market.
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
Table 3
193
The influences of TPB theory and risk preference toward the intention in buying
financial products
Variable
Standarised coef. beta
Constant
Sign
0.129
Attitudes
–0.153
0.27
Subjective norms
0.026
0.858
Perceived behavioural control
0.543
.001**
Risk preference
0.276
.055*
Marital_st
–0.155
0.328
Major
0.076
0.624
Income
0.313
.027**
R2
0.561
Anova
0.00
Notes: ***sig. 0.01, **sig. 0.05, *sig. 0.1
The results of the regression analysis show that perceived behavioural control affects the
intention to buy financial products. This is in line with the research conducted by Alleyne
and Broome (2011). It occured because women felt confident and believed that they had
the opportunities and enough knowledge to invest in financial products. This conviction
arose because the respondents in this study were lecturers in the faculty of economics and
business, who had an educational background in finance. Besides, actually the women in
Indonesia have plenty opportunity to buy financial product, it happens because security
companies have great promotion programmes for potential female investors.
The next variable that is also significant is risk preferences. Risk preference is very
important for women because women have more risk-averse tendencies. Women usually
love secure product investments like gold, property and deposit, although the level of
return that they will receive is low. It is evidence that the risk preferences of women
affect their behavioural intention in investing. Alleyne and Broome (2011) also stated
that the risk preferences affect a person’s intention to invest. Table 2 shows that there is
one control variable that has significant value in determining the intentions to buy
financial product; i.e., income. Women who have enough income want to invest their
money in financial products. Beckmann and Menkhoff (2008) stated that investors with a
higher level of income invest their funds in more dynamic portfolios which are composed
by more dynamic stocks.
Based on the results of data analysis, there is only one significant variable, i.e.,
Perceived behavioural control, while the others, such as subjective norms and attitudes,
do not have any significant effect towards intentions to buy financial products. Subjective
norms and attitudes that exist in the culture of Indonesian women always think that
investing in the stock market is something terrible because it has high risk. Besides, the
people and family members who are around them also do not provide any supports to
invest in the capital market. This lack of support and the belief that investing in the stock
market is risky made Indonesian women do not have behavioral intentions to buy
financial products. Some of women in Indonesia think that investment in financial
products, like stock is not ‘halal’ (prohibited to buy because it is considered sinful to a
particular religion), because buying stocks has high risk and is considered a gambling
(Yulianti, 2010). Another reason is that women in Indonesia have unique characteristics
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
especially to make sure about financial security for the future of their family. Married
women have more responsibility to manage finance in their families. This perception
must be changed. The way to make their financial secure is not only by just keeping their
money in deposits, but also by doing stock investment. Stock investment has a long term
benefit. If women want to make their finance secure for the future, they must have good
plannings in investment and have several other financial goals for their retirements.
Though women are risk averse, they must realise that keeping all their funds in the forms
of ‘safe’ investments will make it difficult to reach their financial goals. Taxes and
inflations will spend their small returns and the best thing that they can do is ‘treading the
water’, if they are lucky enough. Stock investments, which are riskier than some other
investment, also provide the opportunity to beat inflations over a long period and build a
solid foundation. Buying and holding good companies for a long term is a way to build a
‘nest egg’.
Asset allocation is one of those investing terms that would be learned. In other words,
the people can spread their money in some ‘spots’, so it is not all invested in one spot.
They will be seen as its common sense immediately. The important thing to remember is
that it is a continual process that they must always have in their minds as they begin
investing. If they start out with this mindset, their investments will be in a better position
as the years go by.
It would be better if when the women make decision in stock investments for the first
time, they must get good advice from the financial planners (who are supported by
security firms). They may consider a financial planner as a family doctor; a general
practitioner who knows their family situation and history. This person creates an overall
plan that is taken into account income, debts, expenses, taxes, insurance needs, retirement
goals and dreams to buy a house, a cottage or a car. Besides that, there are specialists.
The investment advisors will help them to build a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds and
funds; the estate planners will advise them about inheritance and tax laws; the personal
bankers will help them with loans or mutual funds. Nowadays, most investment advisors
charge a management fee based on the size of their portfolios. As their portfolio grows,
they become wealthier and the investment advisors will earn more, so everyone is
satisfied. The planners, on the other hand tend to charge a flat fee for their advice and
then they see specialists to obtain each specific solution.
The results of the research indicate that the Jakarta stock exchange (JSX) must have a
special programme to socialise the financial products for Indonesian women. The
promotion programme can be done by using cultural and religion approach. It is
important because most women in Indonesia are still strongly tied to cultural values and
religion. Financial products are suitable for women in Indonesia. Furthermore, they will
lead to the mutual funds or ‘syariah’ products (financial products that contain religious
elements), in which the mutual funds and ‘syariah’ product have lower risk than stocks.
Moreover, investments in mutual funds do not require a lot of funds. Investing in mutual
funds can be done in groups with a combination of several female investors. Mutual
funds are also considered to be more secure because they are managed by professional
investment managers from the security companies. The socialisation of financial products
that will be conducted by the JSX would be better if it is done in the communities of
Indonesian women, such as the PKK (a women’s associations which meet regularly once
a month) members. This association almost exists in every city in Indonesia. Through this
association, it is expected that more Indonesian women will be braver to invest in
Determining the factors which affect the stock investment decisions
195
financial products because they get the endorsement from their environments, such as
their friends and family members.
Indonesian women have been proved to have the characteristics of risk-averse.
Therefore, Indonesian stock exchange should provide trainings about how to invest in
stocks and what benefits that can be received by doing it.
5
Conclusions
The results of this study indicated that women in Indonesia had some abilities, such as
enough salary and knowledge of financial products. The problem that they faced was the
lack of support from their environments. It happened because their friends and family did
not support them to invest in financial products, since they considered investing in
financial products as a bad thing because financial products had high risks. Another
reason of why Indonesian women had fewer interests in investing their money in
financial market was because they needed to secure the family’s financial in the future.
Finally, the last reason was about their perception about stock investments that were
considered as not ‘halal’. Indonesia is one of countries that have the largest Moslem
populations in the world. The concept of ‘halal’ in investment is very important for them.
JSX must consider financial products with ‘syariah’ labels, because this products can be
more attractive compared to the conventional stock investments.
Therefore, the JSX must have special programmes to make Indonesian women
become more interested in investing in financial products that are traded in the capital
market. The approach can be done by doing promotions and socialisations through local
groups, such as the PKK. PKK is expected to provide social supports for Indonesian
women about investing. Financial products which will be promoted to Indonesian women
should be more specific, like ‘syariah’ mutual fund. This product is also less risky than
stock investment.
6
Limitation and suggestions for future research
The respondents of this study are limited to women who worked as lecturers at The
Faculty of Economics and Business of Satya Wacana Christian University, in which most
of them have already had good understanding about financial products. In the future
research, the respondents should not only come from one kind of professions, but it
should also involve some other professions. The diversity of the respondents should be
able to explain about the understanding of financial products more deeply. Different
knowledge about financial products is suspected to influence perceived behavioural
control that ultimately affects behavioural intentions in investing. One more thing that
has not captured in this research is about religion perception in investing financial
products. Religion perception becomes an important variable that can influence
behavioural intention of Indonesian women, because they have strong relations with their
religions.
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L.A. Mahastanti and E. Hariady
Acknowledgements
I extend thanks to Edy Hariady who have become partners in the writing of this article
and anonymous reviewer that have provided input and assistance during the revision
process of this article. In addition I also wish to thank Dr. John Vong who has given me
the opportunity to publish this paper in the International Journal of Process Management
and Benchmarking.
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