Role of Financial Advisors and Media in Mutual Fund Investments Behaviour: Preliminary Evidence from Punjab

Abstract

The relevance of financial advisors and media is being expanded in decision processes of investors. It is mainly due to increasing range of mutual fund products and financial-information channels. This pilot study investigates the role of Financial Advisor (FA) and Media Influence (MI) in investors’ behaviour towards mutual funds by emphasizing on Decision to Invest (DI) and Fund Preference (FP). A quantitative, cross sectional and exploratory design was employed using 43 complete responses from existing mutual fund investors in Punjab, India. Some statistical tools were used like descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s tests, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), Pearson correlation, multiple regression and regression diagnostics. In total, 19 Liker-scale items were evaluated. The scales confirmed satisfactory internal consistency (Alpha = .805-.948). The overall KMO was .689 and Bartlett’s test was significant, while the four-factor Principal Axis Factoring solution explained 68.13% of the variance. FA and MI did not significantly predict DI or the supplementary aggregate measure of investment behaviour. In contrast, their joint model for FP was statistically significant (R-squared= .169, F=4.078, p= .024), although neither individual coefficient reached the .05 level and heteroscedasticity requires cautious interpretation. The findings therefore provide preliminary evidence that information sources may be more relevant to fund preference than to an existing investors’ continuing investment intention. The study offers a pilot-stage foundation for larger-sample validation in Punjab

Introduction

The study examines how financial advisors and media influence mutual fund investment behaviour among individual investors in Punjab, India. India's mutual fund industry has experienced significant growth, accompanied by increased household participation and a wider range of investment options, including equity, debt, and hybrid funds. Investors must consider several factors when selecting mutual funds, such as risk, returns, liquidity, investment objectives, financial literacy, past performance, and investment experience. Consequently, the information sources investors rely on may play an important role in their financial decisions.

The literature review identifies two major sources of investment information: financial advisors and media influence. Financial advisors provide personalized guidance, explain complex financial products, help investors understand risk-return relationships, and assist in comparing investment alternatives. Media, including television, financial websites, newspapers, and social media, increases information accessibility, promotes awareness, and influences the visibility and attractiveness of investment options. However, previous research indicates that these sources do not necessarily influence all investment decisions equally.

The study identifies three research gaps. First, financial advisors and media are often examined separately rather than jointly. Second, investment behaviour is frequently treated as a single broad concept, despite differences between the intention to continue investing and preferences when selecting particular funds. Third, limited evidence is available concerning these relationships among mutual fund investors in Punjab.

To address these gaps, the research examines three main constructs: Financial Advisor (FA), Media Influence (MI), and Mutual Fund Investment Behaviour (IB). Investment behaviour is divided into two primary outcomes:

• Decision to Invest (DI): An existing investor's intention and willingness to continue investing in mutual funds.

• Fund Preference (FP): An investor's preferences when choosing among different mutual fund schemes.

An overall Investment Behaviour (IB) score is also examined as a supplementary measure. The study is theoretically grounded in behavioural finance, information-processing theory, and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which helps explain how information, attitudes, social influences, and perceived control can shape investment intentions and choices.

The research adopts a quantitative, cross-sectional, exploratory pilot design involving 43 existing mutual fund investors in Punjab. Data were collected using a 19-item questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale. The instrument contains five items measuring financial advisor influence, five measuring media influence, four measuring decision to invest, and five measuring fund preference. The analysis is intended to examine the individual relationships of financial advisors and media with investment behaviour, as well as their combined explanatory contribution to decision to invest, fund preference, and the overall investment behaviour score.

The research objectives and hypotheses focus on determining whether financial advisor influence and media influence are significantly associated with investment behaviour, both individually and jointly. The study does not assume that either information source necessarily has the same influence on continuing investment intention and fund preference.

Conclusion

This pilot study examined Financial Advisor and Media Influence in relation to mutual fund investment behaviour among 43 existing investors in Punjab. The results do not support significant independent regression effects of FA or MI on continuing Decision to Invest, Fund Preference or supplementary Overall Investment Behaviour. However, the joint FA-MI model for Fund Preference was statistically significant and explained 16.9% of its variance, whereas the corresponding DI model explained only 1.8% and was non-significant. The evidence therefore suggests a potentially important distinction: external information sources may be more relevant when investors compare and prefer mutual fund alternatives than when deciding whether to continue investing. Because the sample is small, the FP model is heteroscedastic, and robustness checks weaken the bivariate FP associations, this conclusion must remain preliminary. The principal contribution of the study is consequently not a definitive claim of influence, but an empirically grounded reason to preserve the distinction between continuing investment intention and fund preference in the larger study.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Shammi Kumar, Dr. Cheshta Kashyap, Dr. Manisha Agarwal. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.