Understanding Investor Satisfaction of Financial Products Under the SLP Approach: An Attempt to Understand Investor Priorities

Introduction

Modern business strategies aim at considering the interest of the stakeholders shifting their goal from profit maximization to their satisfaction as protecting customers’ interest is the primary objective now a days. Thus, the concept of customer satisfaction as loyal and pleased customers boost sales and thus growth of a company came into existence. However, the entire concept of customer satisfaction changes to investor satisfaction when it comes to marketing of financial instruments. The universal language of investment has the background meaning of an assured future return and ironically expansive factors are clubbed with the process starting from psychological to financial, behavioral to practical (Chen & Volpe, 1998). So, when it comes to the mode of investment, utmost care is taken by the financial institutions while offering them to the investors. Investor Satisfaction is not only limited to offering profit but also a range of causes like understanding investors’ requirement, their financial goal, risk taking ability etc. Financial products or Instruments being claims against money demands a careful consideration and planning in its marketing strategy. The background reason being different risk return appetite of investors, uncertainty of future outcome prediction and changing guidelines by regulatory bodies, the whole marketing strategy relies on in-depth understating of financial instrument features. Understanding how marketing initiatives link to financial outcomes is crucial in the financial industry.

Many elements of the investor decision making process have previously been the subject of extensive investigation from a number of schools of thought. But when it comes to investor satisfaction, there is still a discrepancy. Sometimes, investors lack the expected outcomes from their investment. They fail to understand the basic aspects of investments and the factors they need to study thoroughly. Given its current relevance in the financial markets, financial contentment is commonly comprehending a key goal for financial managers and practitioners since it is vital to consider their clients' subjective perceptions of their situation. This objective necessitates a thorough research-based approach that examines the characteristics of an investment. Being this an emerging little explored of research, it is important to start by answering a few important questions, such as what factors contribute to financial satisfaction and why it is becoming a top priority for financial institutions. The current study attempts to further explore the topic in order to delve into these questions and logically respond to them. It makes an effort to identify and study the diverse determinants that influence financial satisfaction. This current study's intention is to investigate elements or aspects that affect investor satisfaction while retaining the aforementioned discussion as its main idea. By connecting the chosen determinants to financial satisfaction in one's life, the paper tests the impact on investor satisfaction (which takes into account the determinants i.e. safety, liquidity and profitability and thus suggests an SLP approach). So, the SLP approach that ascertains investor satisfaction by taking into account crucial elements including safety, liquidity, and profitability is being presented.

The study is divided into three parts. First part has tried to explore various research works conducted by economists, financial analysts, researchers and academicians in the field of investor satisfaction. In this literature review part, the primary determinants of financial products that affect investor satisfaction are tried to be identified. Once identified, they are used for further studying their inter-relationship and overall impact on investors. Second part of the study deals with data collection. Three districts (Cuttack, Khurda and Ganjam) are selected for the study. Population of these three districts represents around 12% of total population of the state. Moreover, capital of Odisha i.e., Bhubaneswar is covered by considering Khurda District in the present work. In this part of the work, data is collected and using statistical tools they are examined. Accordingly the result is derived. Third or last part of the study makes an attempt to interpret the result by analyzing the data and managerial implication is focused. In this segment, a model is proposed to discuss the above determinants linking them with each other. Overall outcome of the paper is thus concluded in this part.