Determinants to influence the actual buying behaviour to invest in unit trust fund through tpb model: Enriched with salesperson attributes

• Main Author: Richard Albert Gontusan
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: HG4530 Investment companies. Investment trusts. Mutual funds
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41401/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41401/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41401/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sabah

A unit trust fund is an attractive investment product that has gained much popularity in recent years. Hence, it is imperative to understand the buying behaviour for unit trust funds among investors. This study investigated the factors influencing buying behaviour for unit trust funds based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. In addition, salesperson’s attributes based on the Big Five Trait Theory was explored to enrich the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Apart from that, the moderating roles of gender and age were similarly explored. Using a descriptive and quantitative research methodology, this study conducted a survey of investors in Sabah who were selected based on purposive sampling. A total of 182 valid datasets were used which were analysed using PLS-SEM approach. The findings show positive and significant relationships between attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control with small effect sizes, and salesperson’s attributes with a large effect size, and actual buying behaviour. Furthermore, all five dimensions of salesperson’s attributes are also positively and significantly related to actual buying behaviour with small effect sizes. In terms of effect sizes, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness possess greater effect sizes compared to openness and emotional traits. In addition, the findings show that the relationship between attitude and actual buying behaviour for unit trust funds is stronger among female investors while the relationship between perceived behavioural control and actual buying behaviour for unit trust funds is stronger among male investors. Meanwhile, the relationships between subjective norm and salesperson’s attributes on one hand and actual buying behaviour on the other for unit trust funds are not moderated by gender. Similarly, age does not moderate the relationships between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and salesperson’s attributes on one hand and actual buying behaviour on the other for unit trust funds. The extended TPB model enriched by salesperson’s attributes bears a substantial predictive accuracy of 80.5 per cent with 20.3 per cent contribution from salesperson’s attributes to explain variance in actual buying behaviour for unit trust funds. Despite the substantial predictive accuracy, other factors should still be explored and added to the TPB model to develop a more comprehensive model of actual buying behaviour for unit trust funds. In addition, further investigations using qualitative approach on the role of different attributes of salespeople can produce even more insights. The findings of this study provide important practical implications with regards to the need for the unit trust salespeople to adapt their attributes to the expectations of investors of varied backgrounds.