Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Aliyu Ali Bawalle; Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan; Yoshihiko Kadoya
This study investigates the phenomenon of panic selling, in which investors rapidly sell financial securities due to fear or uncertainty, often causing asset prices to plummet. Despite the significance of this behavior during market crises, there is limited understanding of the factors that drive panic selling. To address this gap, we applied the overreaction hypothesis, integrating financial literacy to explore whether investor sentiment influences trading decisions even when financial knowledge is present. We analyzed individual investor level data from a survey conducted by Rakuten Securities Company and Hiroshima University in Japan, covering the period between November and December 2023. Using probit regression models, we examined the relationship between panic selling, financial literacy, and overconfidence, while controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological factors. Our findings reveal that overconfident investors are more likely to engage in panic selling during market downturns, even when financial literacy reduces such tendencies. This relationship persists across various degrees of selling, including partial and full divestment of stocks and mutual funds. The results underscore the importance for policymakers to monitor the dissemination of negative information during crises to mitigate panic selling. At the household level, the findings highlight the need for investors to acquire financial knowledge and seek reliable information to make informed decisions, thereby reducing their susceptibility to panic selling.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
During market stress, an urgent transaction can reflect a genuine cash need, a changed investment thesis or an untested reaction. This companion proposes a crisis decision record that makes those reasons inspectable without imposing a blanket hold-or-sell rule. It draws on evidence linking overconfidence and reported panic selling in Japan.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Gianna Figà-Talamanca; Paola Musile Tanzi; Eleonora D’Urzo
Robo-advice technology refers to services offered by a virtual financial advisor based on artificial intelligence. Research on the application of robo-advice technology already highlights the potential benefit in terms of financial inclusion. We analyze the process for adopting robo-advice through the technology acceptance model (TAM), focusing on a highly educated sample and exploring generational and gender differences. We find no significant gender difference in the causality links with adoption, although some structural differences still arise between male and female groups. Further, we find evidence that generational cohorts affect the path to future adoption of robo-advice technology. Indeed, the ease of use is the factor which triggers the adoption by Generation Z and Generation Y, whereas the perceived usefulness of robo-advice technology is the key factor driving Generation X + , who need to understand the ultimate purpose of a robo-advice technology tool before adopting it. Overall, the above findings may reflect that, while gender differences are wiped out in a highly educated population, generation effects still matter in the adoption of a robo-advice technology tool.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A family office should not equate digital comfort with financial understanding or infer a person’s needs from age or gender. This companion proposes an onboarding process that separately tests usefulness, usability and comprehension. It draws on a study of robo-advisor acceptance while preserving the limits of a small, highly educated sample.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Brandon E. Gavett; Rui Zhao; Samantha E. John; Cara A. Bussell; Jennifer R. Roberts; Chuan Yue
Phishing is the spoofing of Internet websites or emails aimed at tricking users into entering sensitive information, with such goals as financial or identity theft. The current study sought to determine whether age is associated with increased susceptibility to phishing and whether tests of executive functioning can predict phishing susceptibility. A total of 193 cognitively intact participants, 91 younger adults and 102 older adults, were primarily recruited through a Psychology department undergraduate subject pool and a gerontology research registry, respectively. The Executive Functions Module from the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery and the Iowa Gambling Task were the primary cognitive predictors of reported phishing suspiciousness. Other predictors included age group (older vs. younger), sex, education, race, ethnicity, prior knowledge of phishing, prior susceptibility to phishing, and whether or not browsing behaviors were reportedly different in the laboratory setting versus at home. A logistic regression, which accounted for a 22.7% reduction in error variance compared to the null model and predicted phishing suspiciousness with 73.1% (95% CI [66.0, 80.3]) accuracy, revealed three statistically significant predictors: the main effect of education ( b = 0.58, SE = 0.27) and the interactions of age group with prior awareness of phishing ( b = 2.31, SE = 1.12) and performance on the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery Mazes test ( b = 0.16, SE = 0.07). Whether or not older adults reported being suspicious of the phishing attacks used in this study was partially explained by educational history and prior phishing knowledge. This suggests that simple educational interventions may be effective in reducing phishing vulnerability. Although one test of executive functioning was found useful for identifying those at risk of phishing susceptibility, four tests were not found to be useful; these results speak to the need for more ecologically valid tools in clinical neuropsychology.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Phishing protection should test a person’s verification process rather than presume vulnerability from age. This companion proposes a consent-based rehearsal using fictional messages and safe credentials, grounded in research on suspiciousness and executive functioning. It distinguishes recognizing a suspicious message from preventing an actual financial loss.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Benjamin Havers; Kartikeya Tripathi; Alexandra Burton; Sally McManus; Claudia Cooper
Background Younger people are more likely to report cybercrime than older people. As older people spend more time online, this may change. If similarly exposed, risk factors including social isolation and poor health could make older adults disproportionally susceptible. We aimed to explore whether cybercrime risks and their predictors vary between age groups. Methods We analysed responses from 35,069 participants aged 16+ in the 2019/20 Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). We investigated, among people who have used the internet in the past year, risks of experiencing any cybercrime, repeat victimisation and associated financial loss across age groups. Results Despite being at lower risk of reporting any cybercrime in the past year, people aged 75+ were more likely to report financial loss resulting from cybercrime victimisation (OR 4.25, p = 0.037) and repeat cybercrime victimisation (OR 2.03, p = 0.074) than younger people. Men, those from Mixed or Black ethnic groups, more deprived areas, managerial professional groups, and with worse health were at greater cybercrime risk. Discussion While younger adults are more at risk from cybercrime, older adults disclosed more severe cases (repetitive victimisation and associated financial loss), perhaps due to lesser awareness of scams and reporting options. As most people experience declining health as they age, greater understanding of why poor health predicts cybercrime could inform prevention initiatives that would particularly benefit older age groups and mitigate risks of growing internet use among older adults. Health and social care professionals may be well positioned to support prevention.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A low number of reported scams can coexist with serious losses or repeated victimization. This companion proposes a harm-oriented fraud review for family offices, separating exposure, reporting, loss, recurrence and recovery. It draws on a probability-sample study while avoiding demographic risk labels for individual family members.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Mark Button; David Shepherd; Chloe Hawkins; Jacki Tapley
This paper explores older adults who are largely over 75 and their experience of fraud, based upon research with the clients of a UK charity working with this age group. The researchers used a postal questionnaire yielding almost 2000 responses, supplemented with interviews with clients and key staff. The research found higher rates of fraud victimisation than national rates for this age group as well regular attempted frauds, largely through the telephone. The experience of fraud and attempted fraud has a devastating impact on some of the lives of older adults, causing fear, anxiety, and related issues, which affects their quality of life. This is the first study to illustrate that fear of fraud is a major problem amongst older adults, particularly females living alone.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A protective message can increase awareness while making everyday life feel unsafe. This companion proposes evaluating fraud-prevention communication for both useful protective behavior and unintended fear. It draws on research with older adults and keeps support, autonomy and financial controls distinct.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Mark Button; David Shepherd; Chloe Hawkins; Jacki Tapley
Raising awareness to combat scams has become a central strategy of fraud/scam prevention. Using data from a wider evaluation of a targeted campaign to improve fraud prevention and awareness for older adults predominantly over 75, this paper offers findings on the most effective means of dissemination of anti-scam communications to this group. The paper draws upon almost 1000 questionnaire responses and qualitative data from older adults, as well as volunteers and workers involved in the project. The research finds many older adults have not received any fraud prevention or awareness communications in the prior six months, illustrating a gap in fraud prevention messaging reaching this group. The paper also shows that the preferred method of dissemination is one-to-one through friends and family and that is also the case for the most isolated. The paper offers some potential solutions to address these gaps, particularly for lonely older adults.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A family office can produce excellent fraud guidance that never reaches the person who needs it. This companion proposes a delivery register, consent-based trusted contacts and practical teach-back to close that gap. It treats channel preference as a design input rather than proof that a particular communication prevents loss.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Francisco Palací; Irene Jiménez; Gabriela Topa
The present study analyzes the relationship between three distal antecedents—financial literacy, confidence in retirement, and economic well-being—and financial planning for retirement evaluated at two different times. We used longitudinal data with repeated measures of financial planning for retirement obtained from a sample (N = 269) of active Spanish workers aged 45–62 years. The results confirm that self-perceived financial knowledge, confidence in retirement, and economic well-being are associated with financial planning for retirement at three and six months. The stability of financial planning for retirement over time was a relevant finding in the present research, even though different measures have been employed in the two waves and financial planning decreases slightly at three months. While the first step of planning, at three months, has predictive power over the second, at six months, there are possible moderators in the relationship between financial planning for retirement at time 1 and time 2, which were not explored. The implications of the results both for financial education and Policy-makers are discussed. Future lines of research can explore these relationships including objective measures of income, as wealth accumulation.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Retirement planning is a process that must survive competing demands, not a document completed once. This companion proposes a ninety-day review for family-enterprise employees and participating family members, separating knowledge, confidence, economic constraints and completed actions. It draws on a longitudinal Spanish worker study without importing its findings as individualized advice.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Tomasz Szopiński; Michał Buszko; Małgorzata Porada-Rochoń
The development of artificial intelligence has led to an increase in scientific papers on its applications in financial services. Some of them focus on consumers, particularly presenting the aspects of automated servicing through robo-advisory systems. Nonetheless, relatively rarely does the research relate to the aspects of supporting consumers with AI-driven solutions for their own financial decision-making, which we find as a research gap. Our investigation focuses on finding how and to what extent AI-based tools empower consumers, providing support to their personal financial decisions. Our goal is to identify the determinants of acceptance of AI-based tools supporting financial decision-making, including perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, attitudes, and intentions to use. We base our work on the TAM model, for which we developed a dedicated scale to measure the individual items. The investigation is a pilot study that tests the survey on a representative sample of society. We gathered data through the CAWI survey research on a group of 371 respondents from three Polish universities. Our research shows that AI-based tools supporting financial decisions are primarily perceived through their usefulness and the potential to improve financial literacy. Furthermore, the PLS-SEM modelling confirms positive relationships between perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitudes (ATT), behavioral intentions (BI), and actual use (AU) of AI-based tools in making financial decisions by consumers, except for the impact of PU on BI. We observed the strongest relation between PU and ATT towards AI-based tools, and between BI and AU. Our findings demonstrate that PU influences BI only indirectly through the construct of attitude (ATT). Such a phenomenon of a fully mediated relationship deviates from the traditional TAM assumptions. Our study confirms the coherence of the survey and the validity of the extended theoretical model of the acceptance and use of AI-based tools in consumers’ financial decision-making.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Positive attitudes toward an AI assistant are not evidence that it improves financial judgment. This companion proposes a limited learning pilot that measures comprehension, source checking and appropriate escalation alongside adoption. It uses a study of consumer acceptance to distinguish a service people like from a service they can use responsibly.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Elisabeth Carter; Vasileios Karagiannopoulos; Annie Kirby; Mark Button
Exploring older adult victimisation of cybercrimes, perceptions of risk and protections using semi-structured interviews and a mixed interactional analytic approach, this paper assesses the implications of isolation, technical knowledge and trusted sources of protection advice. It explores perceptions of personal responsibility, fraud risk, fraud protections, the interconnected and dichotomous narratives of blame and empathy relating to victimhood, and how judgement rests on whether victimhood is perceived as acceptable (just bad luck) or not (gullibility). It highlights the importance social isolation and cognitive decline has in relation to older adults’ fraud victimhood, underscored by participants’ perceptions that youth, education and intelligence are key to resilience against threats.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
How a family responds to suspected fraud can determine whether the affected person shares the next warning sign. This companion proposes a nonjudgmental disclosure and learning protocol grounded in qualitative research on older adults’ perceptions. It protects autonomy, distinguishes support from authority and keeps causal claims within the source’s limits.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Original source
Witold Orzeszko; Dariusz Piotrowski
The banking sector is increasingly recognising the need to implement robo-advisory. The introduction of this service may lead to increased efficiency of banks, improved quality of customer service, and a strengthened image of banks as innovative institutions. Robo-advisory uses data relating to customers, their behaviors and preferences obtained by banks from various communication channels. In the research carried out in the work, an attempt was made to obtain an answer to the question whether the data collected by banks can also be used to determine the degree of consumer interest in this type of service. This is important because the identification of customers interested in the service will allow banks to direct a properly prepared message to a selected group of addressees, increasing the effectiveness of their promotional activities. The aim of the article is to construct and examine the effectiveness of predictive models of consumer acceptance of robo-advisory services provided by banks. Based on the authors’ survey on the use of artificial intelligence technology in the banking sector in Poland, in this article we construct tree-based models to predict customers’ attitudes towards using robo-advisory in banking services using, as predictors, their socio-demographic characteristics, behaviours and attitudes towards modern digital technologies, experience in using banking services, as well as trust towards banks. In our study, we use selected machine learning algorithms, including a decision tree and several tree-based ensemble models. We showed that constructed models allow to effectively predict consumer acceptance of robo-advisory services.
Intelligence, trust & financial decisions · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A model that predicts who will accept a digital financial service does not establish who should use it. This companion develops a purpose-limited audit for family offices evaluating predictive targeting by banks or technology vendors. It separates marketing propensity, informed consent, appropriateness and observed outcomes.
Governance & succession · Original source
Ayesha Kashif; Amaia Maseda; Txomin Iturralde
Social capital (SC) is deeply embedded in the dynamics of family firms—the world’s most prevalent business form—shaping interactions within the family, across the organization, and with external stakeholders. Despite growing scholarly interest, research on SC in family firms remains fragmented, often examining its dimensions in isolation or within narrowly defined contexts. This study offers a comprehensive and integrative perspective on SC as a multidimensional and ambivalent resource in family firms, highlighting both its strategic benefits and its potential constraints. Drawing on a bibliometric–systematic literature review of 222 articles published in leading journals, we identify four thematic domains: (1) social and business networks, (2) governance and succession, (3) innovation and knowledge management, and (4) family SC. Across these domains, SC operates through the interplay of structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions, as well as through bonding and bridging mechanisms that connect internal cohesion with external openness. The review reveals key theoretical tensions, including the tradition–innovation paradox and the “dark sides” of SC, such as overembeddedness, groupthink, and strategic rigidity. Building on these insights, we develop a structured research agenda with short-, medium-, and long-term priorities. These priorities emphasize the need for dynamic and multilevel models of SC, deeper theoretical integration with socioemotional wealth and dynamic capabilities, and comparative research across cultural and institutional contexts. By consolidating dispersed knowledge and theorizing from emergent patterns in the literature, this review advances theory and offers practical guidance for leveraging SC in family firms.
Governance & succession · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Relationships can preserve a family enterprise and also prevent it from noticing change. Drawing on a systematic and bibliometric review of social capital in family firms, this companion proposes a relationship resilience register that distinguishes continuity, access, shared understanding and dissent. It is a governance design for testing locally, not an evaluated intervention or a forecast of investment performance.
Governance & succession · Original source
Anna Maria Bornhausen; Torsten Wulf
Digital innovation, i.e. the creation of products and services, processes, or business models on the basis of digital technology, represents a new innovation phenomenon that offers important opportunities, but also entails high risks. Family firm research argues that family firms generally possess a greater ability to innovate, but differ in their willingness to do so. We propose that with regard to digital innovation family firms rather face an “ability and willingness challenge”, i.e. they differ in their willingness and their ability to engage in digital innovation. We analyze two factors—non-family managers and transgenerational control intentions—that might help family firms overcome the ability and willingness challenge and that allows to explain heterogeneity among family firms in the adoption of digital innovation. An empirical, survey-based investigation of 104 German family firms supports our hypotheses. We contribute to the literature on digital innovation in family firms as well as on family firm professionalization.
Governance & succession · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Recruiting an outside manager does not resolve a family enterprise’s uncertainty about changing inherited business practices. Using evidence from 104 German family firms, this companion separates technical ability, willingness to change and delegated authority. It proposes a reversible innovation mandate that lets owners protect explicit commitments while allowing qualified managers to test a defined operating improvement.
Governance & succession · Original source
Jiamu Sun; Massimiliano Matteo Pellegrini; Marina Dabić; Kai Wang; Cizhi Wang
Sluggish market demand can deteriorate the financial situation of a company and affect a shareholder’s decision to adopt environmental, social, and governance criteria (ESG). According to the socioemotional wealth theory, family firms place significant emphasis on sustainable development and long-term orientation, but this emphasis can be either internally or externally driven according to the type of involvement chosen by the owning family. Therefore, this study uses listed family firms to explore the relationship between different types of family involvement (i.e., family ownership and control, the influence of market competition, and the institutionalisation level of the environment in which a firm decides to pursue ESG criteria). We performed a multivariate regression analysis on a sample of 1,151 Chinese companies to test these relationships and found that both family ownership and control are positively related to ESG scores. Market competition negatively moderates the influence of both family ownership and control on the adoption of ESG criteria. Moreover, the influence of family control is negatively moderated by the institutional environment. Thus, types of family involvement seem to be relevant for the firm’s engagement with ESG criteria.
Governance & succession · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A family ownership label does not explain how sustainability decisions are made or whether reported scores represent meaningful outcomes. This companion draws on a study of Chinese listed family firms to propose an evidence map that separates ownership, control, institutional context and operating effects. Its purpose is disciplined diligence and stewardship, not an ESG-based return forecast.
Governance & succession · Original source
Andrea Stübner; Svenja Jarchow
This study investigates how family continuation, namely family tradition and succession intention, alter the socially responsible behavior of small and medium sized (SME) family firms. Using a unique dataset, we have conducted multiple regressions on survey data from German family SMEs and show a statistically and economically significant increase in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) alongside the planning of family succession. However, when analyzing the different facets of CSR, we have found strong variances: While succession intention goes along with an increased community, market, and supply chain engagement this is not the case for CSR directed towards employees, or the environment. Family tradition didn’t correlate with a change in CSR behaviour to a relevant extent. In our theoretical embedding we employed socio-emotional wealth (SEW) theory to explain our findings. Thereby, our study fills a gap in the literature adding the perspective of SME family firms on the use of CSR in the context of family succession and also adding to the theoretical understanding of SEW.
Governance & succession · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Planning family succession can coincide with greater social responsibility while leaving some stakeholders outside the improvement. Drawing on a survey of German family SMEs, this companion proposes a five-domain handover that examines community, market, supply-chain, employee and environmental responsibilities separately. It helps successors distinguish inherited reputation from documented operating commitments and consequences.
Private capital & investment governance · Original source
Valeria Giacomin; Geoffrey Jones
This article discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly for strategic motives that served wider corporate purposes. We argue that philanthropic foundations in emerging markets have distinctive characteristics that merit separate examination. We scrutinize the ethics behind the longitudinal activity of such foundations using 70 oral history interviews with business leaders in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. We find that 55 out of 70 foundations associated with these leaders have been used as vehicles for a specific type of philanthropic ethics defined as “spiritual philanthropy”. These foundations often embodied personal or family traditions, culture, and religious values, which emphasized charitable giving and social responsibility. As in the case of many of the industrial foundations in Europe, these foundations also carried founding family names and provided a structure to maintain family control and enhance corporate reputation. We argue that, as business leaders in emerging markets are more directly exposed to dire social, educational and health deprivation than their counterparts in developed countries, they are less inclined toward grandiose world-making, and their foundations are more focused on delivering immediate benefits to communities in their home countries, motivated by implicit or explicit spirituality.
Private capital & investment governance · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Family philanthropy can preserve inherited values while remaining accountable to people who receive its support. Drawing on Giacomin and Jones’s historical study of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets, this companion proposes a charter that separates donors’ reasons for giving from evidence about what their giving accomplishes. It specifies how a family office can document traditions, negotiate local partnerships, share decision authority and revise funding when outcomes diverge from intentions. The charter is an untested editorial proposal, not a validated measure of philanthropic effectiveness.