Group Project Submission

Program & Batch: 2013-2015

Term: IV
Course Name: Business Research Methodology
Name of the faculty: A.K.Chauhan
Topic/ Title : Investment Preferences of working women professional
Original
or Revised Write-up:
Original
Group Number: Two (2)
Contact No. and email of
Group Coordinator:
9871545901
ft13mayankbhardwaj@imt.ac.in
Group Members: Sl. Roll No. Name
1 1301-029 Archit Gupta
2 1301-185 Ronit Anand
3 1301-227 Sumaiyah Ahmed
4 1301-371 Narasimha Malepati
5 1301-539 Mayank Bhardwaj
6 13FRN-349 Cecile Durot










INDEX

Abstract .. 3
Introduction.. 4
Literature Review. 5
Research Methodology. 8
Data Analysi and Interpretation. 9
Conclusion. 15
References. 16


















Topic: To study the investment preferences of working women professional.
Objective: To study the Significance of various instruments and investment goals based on age,
profession and income for working women professional.
Abstract
The study aims to find out the effect of age, income level and profession on investing preferences of
working women professions. We have seen that through existing studies and literature reviews that
certain characteristics like age, marital status, etc have effects on the risk taking abilities and
investing habits of women across the globe. This is a exploratory study to find out the factors which
affect the investment decisions of working women professionals. This study will help organizations
help better understand the investment needs of working women professional according to age,
income level and profession.
Introduction :
In the present era women play a significant role in financial planning. India women are
financially independent as most of them are now crucial earning members in the modern
urban families. Women also try to seek help from friends, colleagues, brokers and advisers
on investing in the markets. The right to take the investment decisions has been traditionally
been upon man, but women are increasingly taking more decisions on investments like real
estate, gold, etc. The objective of this study is to explore the different variables that effect
the investment decisions of working women professional in India.

Purpose :

Purpose of this study is to study how investment preferences of working women
professional will differ depending upon their age, income level and profession.

Methodology :
This is an exploratory research conducted on working women professional working in
corporate.

Time Period One week
Data Collection Questionnaire
Research Design Exploratory Research
Sampling Frame Women working with corporate firms in India
Sampling Method Snowball Sampling
Sample Size 82
Techniques Used
Frequency Distribution, Crosstab, Chi-square
test, one-way ANOVA

Findings :

There is no relationship between age and the percentage of income that working women
professionals invest

There is no impact of salary on the investment time frame for working women professionals
There is no relationship between your occupation and the investment level for working women
professionals
There is no impact of age on liquidity needs of working women professionals
There is no impact of salary on risk taking aptitude of working women professionals
There is no impact of occupation on investment preference for Bank Fixed Deposit
The most preferred investment instrument is Bank Fixed Deposit among working women
professionals

Introduction
Background:
More than half of the population in the world constitutes of women. Women contribute to 55% of
the unpaid economic activities of the world. In the present modern world women are also equal
important earning members of society as men are. According to a survey the role for women in the
economically active population has doubled over the last 20 years. Hence, every fact supports the
fact that women should be involved in taking investment decisions.
Women have been traditionally very conservative with respect to investing. Women generally have
had a tendency to save. They have low risk appetite. In the times when women were dependent on
their spouses income, they used to save for future emergencies. But as the time has progressed the
investment behaviour of women has changed especially as women have become self dependent.
The present woman is educated, employed and well aware of the various investment options
available in the market like bonds, stocks, forex, commodity, etc.
Need of the Study:
Indian markets have increased over the times and so have the India savings and household savings.
The general profile of Indian women has also changed with time. But there is still a lot of confusion
about the awareness level of the women investors about the various investment options available in
the market and preferences of women for these investment options.

Working women professionals have a high propensity to save and invest. They are motivated by the
people surrounding them like their friends, colleagues, spouse. They are also motivated by the news
and information that is easily available now days on investment options. As the times have passed
women have increased their risk taking capabilities. Women have started investing in riskier
investment options like forex, stocks, bonds, etc. Indian women have a high tendency to buy gold, as
it is used as jewellery and it is also a highly liquid financial instrument.

Rationality of the Study:
Each individual has different investment behaviour and different risk appetite. Selection of
investment sources also differ from individual to individual. Women generally like to invest in less
risky investment options like bank deposit, PPF, etc.
Women take more time to research about investment options before actually investing. Women are
less impulsive to any news related to investment options. Women do a more thorough evaluation of
the instrument or any news before investing. According to a study only 56% of women are confident
about their investments, whereas 64% of the men are confident about their investments.
So exploratory research is used to find out the factors influencing the investment behaviours of
working women. This research will be useful of financial services organizations to design their
investment policies and instruments for working women professionals.

Literature Review
1. Dr. R. Sellappan, Ms. S. Jamuna and Ms. TNR .Kavitha have conducted a research on
difference in women investors attitude based on age and marital status and found that
womens investment decisions differ on marital status and their age. They used chi-square
test for hypothesis testing. They concluded that married women are more curious for
making investments and younger women are keener to invest in share, mutual funds and
insurance policy than older women. This study provided keen insights which can be used by
governments and financial instrument companies to design financial instruments targeting
women married and unmarried women of different age groups.

2. Merril Lynch wealth management organization has conducted a research on different
investment perspective of men and women. They found that women are more risk-averse
than men and they feel that they have less financial knowledge and experience than men for
taking investment decisions. Men on the other hand are found to be overconfident and
hence, they show a greater tendency to take quick investment decisions based on financial
news they get.

3. Takira K. Hira and Cazilia Loibl (2006) define the different investment behaviours of high
income women comparing to men in the USA. They take into account the involvement of
women comparing to men, how they handle risk, and their future plans in term of
investment.To conduct this study, 7,500 households earning more than $75,000 had been
randomly interviewed by phone between October 2005 and February 2006.The findings
demonstrate clearly the different investment behaviours of women comparing to men. The
investment task they majorly handle is more routine tasks, and most of the time they prefer
invest with the help of their partner instead of alone, when men are most likely to invest on
their own. Women seem to prefer fixed income investment (savings accounts, life insurance,
government savings bonds) which mean that they are less tolerant to risky investment
than men and less confident. When both men and women find investing satisfying but a
time consuming activity, men find it exciting and women are most likely to find it stressful.
In conclusion, high income women are less investing than men, even if this different tends to
decrease, it is still noticeable. Women tend more to invest in safe and long term investment
with fixed return, they are patient and wait if the return is not as expected and they are not
reluctant to ask help (partners, financial advisors).
4. Gaur Arti, Julee and Sukijha Sunita (2009) study the different behaviours between women
and men in the Investement Decision Making (IDM) in India. The goal of the study is to
confirm or infirm a gender stereotype. Do women are less confidence and prefer low risk
investment compare to men? The method use in this research is a survey of the client of
Share Builder Securities Corp., an online brokerage firm. The findings show that men are
more confident and invest more, nevertheless young women feel more and more confident.
Women are more concern about the future then men and still their husband or partners are
taking the major decisions in India. The authors recommendations is to define an investment
market for women, they look for different financial relationship and are more and more
present in the investment field.

5. Brahmabhatt, P.S Raghu Kumari, and Dr. Shamira Malekar conducted a study of investor
behavior on investment avenues in Mumbai Fenil. In this study they analyzed the investor
behavior and their preferences. The objectives of the study were to understand about
various investment avenues available in the market, to understand the pattern of investors
while making the investments, & to find out the factors that investors consider before
investing. Through their study it was revealed that people like to invest in stock market. The
percentage of income they make as investment depends on their annual income.

6. Kabra, G., Mishra, P.K. and Dash M.K. (2010) studied the factors affecting investment
behavior. The research indicated that people living in the same society and having same
income level are different in their investment behavior. The risk level of people of different
age differs as well as gender also contributes to the level risk tolerance in decision making of
investments. They concluded that investors age and gender are the main factors which
decide the risk taking capacity of investors.

7. Dr. Taqadus Bashir, Hassan Raza Ahmed, Sheraz Jahangir, Samina Zaigham, Hifza Saeed and
Sameera Shafi conducted an exploratory research on salaried individuals of Gujrat and
Sialkot (Pakistan) to study the relationship between demographic variables and investment
preferences. The independent variables considered are demographic variables, i.e.., sex,
gender and age. The dependant variables considered are Risk level, stock investment and
gambling. Questionnaire was prepared and responses were taken from a sample of 120
individuals. It was found from the research that women are more risk averse when
compared to men. It was also found that young people are interested to invest their money,
but are not keen on taking risk. From correlation between variables, it was observed that
education has negative correlation with risk level, investment in stocks and gambling.



8. Dr.Aparna Samudra and Dr.M.A.Burgate conducted this research to study the investment
behaviour of middle class households in Nagpur city of India. The respondents were asked to
choose the investment instrument from Bank deposits, insurance, small saving schemes,
shares & mutual funds and real estate. From the survey it was found that 41% of the
respondents preferred bank deposits as their investment instrument and the least preferred
instrument was real estate. The survey was further analysed age wise to know the
investment preferences in these instruments. It was found that the most preferred
instrument is still ban deposits although the percentage of people preferring has decreased
with young people. Income wise investment preferences were also analysed and it was
found that all people in all income levels had bank deposits as their most preferred choice.
When surveyed about the objectives of investments, High returns had the most responses
followed by low risk, tax advantage and liquidity respectively. However, income wise division
resulted in the understanding that tax saving became the most preferred objective as
income increased.

9. The objective is to recognize what demographic elements influence members venture
decisions with respect to risk.
Grabble and Lytton (1999) analyzed investment information from the Florida Retirement
Systems (FRS) characterized commitment plan and demographic data from the Florida
Department Of Educations (FLDOE). This examined the risk preferences of the members.
They highlighted the fact that the more financially educated the participants were they were
more likely to take risks.
Bajtelsmit and Bernasek (1996) found through experiments and data and through MBF
regression analysis that women and black are more conservative with their investments
approach than Men and Whites respectively.
It can be concluded that the different investments made during the working life of a
member would result in different retirement wealth.

10. The objective is to know what investment alternatives does investors prefer particularly
shares and mutual funds. The research methodology here would be including all those tools
and techniques required in order to conduct a research.
Goal and Jain (2010) found out that investments depend on two things which are time and
risk. It is the level of risk and return on which depends which investors would invest.
The research uncovered that land and gold are the most preferred investment choices
among the rest. Investors are very slanted towards post office speculations. Untimely
withdrawal is not allowed during lock in period, therefore it works negatively for the
investors. Liquidity and return is an important investment alternative for the investors.





Research Methodology

Objective: To study the Significance of various instruments and investment goals based on age,
profession and income for working women professional.
Hypothesis:
H
0
1: There is no relationship between age and the percentage of income that working women
professionals invest

H
0
2: There is no impact of salary on the investment time frame for working women professionals
H
0
3: There is no relationship between your occupation and the investment level for working women
professionals
H
0
4: There is no impact of age on liquidity needs of working women professionals
H
0
5: There is no impact of salary on risk taking aptitude of working women professionals
H
0
6: There is no impact of occupation on investment preference for Bank Fixed Deposit
Data Description:
Primary data is used for analysis. Data was collecting through surveying working women
professionals through an online questionnaire survey.

Data Analysis and Interpretation
We floated the online survey on facebook. We got a total of 82 responses. Description of the data is
as follows:
Age-wise distribution of the sample data
Age Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Below 25 55 67.1 67.1 67.1
26-35 19 23.2 23.2 90.2
36-45 3 3.7 3.7 93.9
46-55 4 4.9 4.9 98.8
More than 55 1 1.2 1.2 100.0
Total 82 100.0 100.0




We see that two-thord of the women who have filled the survey are of less than 26 years of age and
about one-fourth of the women are aged between 26 year to 35 years.



Occupation-wise Distribution

Occupation Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Salaried 57 69.5 69.5 69.5
Business 11 13.4 13.4 82.9
Self-employed 14 17.1 17.1 100.0
Total 82 100.0 100.0



Maximum no. of women from the sample are salaried women, while leat no. of women are engaged
in doing business. Some of the women are self-employed, who are engaged in freelancing jobs.

Income-wise Distribution

Income Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Below 25000 17 20.7 20.7 20.7
25000-50000 31 37.8 37.8 58.5
50000-75000 18 22.0 22.0 80.5
Greater than 100000 7 8.5 8.5 89.0
Do not want to reveal 9 11.0 11.0 100.0
Total 82 100.0 100.0

In the sample maximum number of women is having income between Rs.25000 Rs.50000. Some of
the women are not comfortable in revealing their monthly salary.


H
0
: There is no relationship between age and the percentage of income that working women
professionals invest
The above hypothesis can be tested using chi-square test. The results of the hypothesis testing are
given below:

Percentage of Income invested
AGE(years)
1-7
percent
7-15
percent
15-20
percent
More
than 20
percent Total
<=25
15 12 14 14 55
27.3% 21.8% 25.5% 25.5% 100.0%
26-35
3 4 6 6 19
15.8% 21.1% 31.6% 31.6% 100.0%
36-45
0 1 1 1 3
0.0% 33.3% 33.3% 33.3% 100.0%
46-55
2 0 0 2 4
50.0% 0.0% 0.0% 50.0% 100.0%
>55
0 1 0 0 1
0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Total
20 18 21 23 82
24.4% 22.0% 25.6% 28.0% 100.0%


Peasron Chi-square : Value = 9.482
df = (Row-1) * (Column 1) = 12
Significance = 0.661

We are testing with 95% confidence level. The result indicates that Significance is greater than 0.05,
hence, we cannot reject the null hypothesis. Hence, it can be concluded that there is no relationship
between age and the percentage of income that working women professionals invest. Investment is
spread well across different age percentage of income invested.

H
0
: There is no impact of salary on the investment time frame for working women professionals
The above hypothesis can be tested using chi-square test. The results of the hypothesis testing are
given below:

Investment Time frame
SALARY
Less
than 2
years 2-5 years
5-10
years
Greater than
10 years Total
Below 25000 8 6 2 1 17
47.1% 35.3% 11.8% 5.9% 100.0%
25000-50000 10 15 4 2 31
32.3% 48.4% 12.9% 6.5% 100.0%
50000-75000 4 5 9 0 18
22.2% 27.8% 50.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Greater than 100000 2 3 2 0 7
28.6% 42.9% 28.6% 0.0% 100.0%
Do not want to reveal 4 3 0 2 9
44.4% 33.3% 0.0% 22.2% 100.0%
TOTAL 28 32 17 5 82
34.1% 39.0% 20.7% 6.1% 100.0%

Peasron Chi-square : Value = 19.853
df = (Row-1) * (Column 1) = 12
Significance = 0.07
We are testing with 95% confidence level. The result indicates that Significance is greater than 0.05,
hence, we cannot reject the null hypothesis. Hence, it can be concluded that there is no relationship
between salary and investment time frame of working women professionals. Investment is spread
well across different age investment time frames, which is not statistically related to the salary of
working women professionals.
H
0
: There is no relationship between your occupation and the investment level for working women
professionals
The results of the relationship between impact of occupation on investment level for working
women professionals is given below:
Investment Level
OCCUPATION Significant Moderate
Primarily
Debt
payment
Little
Savings
Starting
out Total
Salaried 8 31 3 8 7 57
14.0% 54.4% 5.3% 14.0% 12.3% 100.0%
Business 3 2 4 1 1 11
27.3% 18.2% 36.4% 9.1% 9.1% 100.0%
Self-employed 2 4 3 3 2 14
14.3% 28.6% 21.4% 21.4% 14.3% 100.0%
TOTAL 13 37 10 12 10 82
15.9% 45.1% 12.2% 14.6% 12.2% 100.0%
Peasron Chi-square : Value = 14.066
df = (Row-1) * (Column 1) = 8
Significance = 0.08
We are testing with 95% confidence level. The result indicates that Significance is greater than 0.05,
hence, we cannot reject the null hypothesis. Hence, it can be concluded that there is no relationship
between occupation and investment level of working women professionals. Investment level is
spread well across different occupation, which is not statistically related to the occupation of
working women professionals.
H
0
: There is no impact of age on liquidity needs of working women professionals
The above hypothesis can be tested using one-way anova. The result of the hypothesis testing is
shown in the table below:
AGE
Number
of women Mean(Liquidity) Std. Deviation(Liquidity) Minimum Maximum df F statistic Significance
Below
25
55 2.40 .955 1 5
81 1.242 0.3
26-35 19 2.58 .902 1 4
36-45 3 2.67 1.528 1 4
46-55 4 3.50 1.732 1 5
More
than
55
1 2.00 2 2
Total 82 2.50 1.009 1 5

The results indicate that significance is higher than 5 percent for the F-Statistic and hence, we
cannot reject this hypothesis. Therefore null Hypothesis that There is no impact of age on liquidity
needs of working women professionals can be accepted. This is due to the fact that liquidity needs
vary from person to person and it cannot be generalized on the age of any individual.
Value of 5 means that women have very high liquidity needs and value 1 of one means women have
very low liquidity needs. Since the mean value is 2.5, it indicates that women do not have high
liquidity requirements for their investments. However, an interesting point to note is that women in
the age group of 46 years to 55 years have high liquidity needs, which can be attributed to the fact
that women may need money for their childs higher education, marriage or for medical treatments.
H
0
: There is no impact of salary on risk taking aptitude of working women professionals
The above hypothesis can be tested using one-way anova. The result of the hypothesis testing is
shown in the table below. The results indicate that significance is higher than 5 percent for the F-
Statistic and hence, we cannot reject this hypothesis. Therefore null Hypothesis that There is no
impact of salary on risk taking aptitude of working women professionals can be accepted. This is
due to the fact that risk taking aptitude varies from person to person and it cannot be generalized on
the salary of any individual.


Value of 5 means that women have very high risk appetite and value 1 of one means women have
very low risk appetite. Since the mean value is 3.04, it indicates that women generally are risk-
averse. They are not impulsive and overconfident investors. They like to evaluate any investment
before actually investing.

H
0
: There is no impact of occupation on investment preference for Bank Fixed Deposit
The above hypothesis can be tested using one-way anova. The result of the hypothesis testing is
shown in the table below:
OCCUPATION Number of women Mean Std. Deviation Minimum Maximum df
F
Statistic
significance
Salaried 57 2.8772 1.80347 1.00 8.00
81 0.115 0.892
Business 11 3.1818 2.52262 1.00 8.00
Self-
employed
14 3.0000 2.32048 1.00 9.00
Total 82 2.9390 1.97733 1.00 9.00

The above hypothesis can be tested using one-way anova. The result of the hypothesis testing is
shown in the table below. The results indicate that significance is higher than 5 percent for the F-
Statistic and hence, we cannot reject this hypothesis. Therefore null Hypothesis that There is no
impact of occupation on investment preference for Bank Fixed Deposit of working women
professionals can be accepted. This is due to the fact that Bank Fixed Deposit are almost risk-free
and preference for it shall be equal for professionals as every individual wants to invest in risk-free
instruments.



SALARY Number of women Mean Std. Deviation Minimum Maximum df F Statistic significance
Below 25000 17 3.12 .993 1 4
81 0.313 0.869
25000-50000 31 3.00 1.033 1 5
50000-75000 18 3.06 .938 1 5
Greater than
100000
7 3.29 .756 2 4
Do not want to
reveal
9 2.78 .972 1 4
Total 82 3.04 .962 1 5
The following is the overall rank of all instruments based on the reposes collected:
Instrunent
Number of
women
Most
preferred
Rank
Least
proffered
Rank
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Bank
Fixed
Deposit
82 1.00 9.00 2.9390 1.97733
Public
Provident
Fund
82 1.00 10.00 3.5366 2.32111
Life
Insurance
Policy
82 1.00 10.00 4.2073 2.24839
Medical
Insurance
Policy
82 1.00 10.00 5.1829 1.86672
Mutual
Funds
82 1.00 10.00 5.4146 2.26597
Stocks 82 1.00 10.00 5.6098 2.65626
Real
Estate
82 1.00 10.00 5.6098 2.79663
Gold 82 1.00 10.00 5.7683 2.84279
Chit Fund 82 1.00 10.00 8.0610 2.12189
Forex 82 4.00 10.00 8.6707 1.95666

Over here also we see that Bank Fixed deposit is the most preferred instrument. We observe that
instruments like mutual funds, stocks, etc are more preferred to gold as the sample constitutes of
young women, who are more informed about financial markets and instruments and are more
willing to take risk.
Conclusion
Through this research we have concluded that there is no relationship between age and the
percentage of income that working women professionals invest. This can be attributed to the fact
that investment level depends upon the type of lifestyle of an individual. Also we found that there is
no impact of salary on the investment time frame for working women professionals. This can be
attributed to the fact that investment time frame depends upon the investment planning that a
investor does and it is not influenced by their income level. We also found that there is no
relationship between your occupation and the investment level for working women professionals.
Investment level of a individual depends on their mindset and investment planning rather than their
occupations.
Other observations were that there is no impact of age on liquidity needs of working women
professionals. This is due to the fact that liquidity needs vary from person to person and it cannot be
generalized on the age of any individual. However, an interesting point to note is that women in the
age group of 46 years to 55 years have high liquidity needs, which can be attributed to the fact that
women may need money for their childs higher education, marriage or for medical treatments.


There is no impact of salary on risk taking aptitude of working women professionals. This is due to
the fact that risk taking aptitude varies from person to person and it cannot be generalized on the
salary of any individual. Women generally are risk-averse. They are not impulsive and overconfident
investors. They like to evaluate any investment before actually investing.
There is no impact of occupation on investment preference for Bank Fixed Deposit This is due to the
fact that Bank Fixed Deposit are almost risk-free and preference for it shall be equal for professionals
as every individual wants to invest in risk-free instruments.
We see that Bank Fixed deposit is the most preferred instrument. We observe that instruments like
mutual funds, stocks, etc are more preferred to gold as the sample constitutes of young women,
who are more informed about financial markets and instruments and are more willing to take risk.
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