Title: The emerging mutual fund industry in India: an impact analysis of investors' awareness on investment behaviour

Authors: Sodi Jasbir Kaur; Jehangir Bharucha

Addresses: Department of Commerce, H.R. College, India ' Lincoln University, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: India has more than 1.2 billion people, yet, a mere 3.5% are mutual fund unit investors. This study attempts to explore investors' awareness, perception and experiences towards mutual funds in the Indian city of Indore. The sample size covered 300 investors in Indore who were spread throughout the city and its suburbs. A series of chi square tests were conducted on the data. Out of the respondents, 68 are not even aware of mutual funds and of the 196 respondents who are aware of mutual funds, only 68 (34.69%) have invested in mutual funds. The fixed deposits of banks are the most preferred channel of investment. This study has shown that investment in mutual funds is more often influenced by qualifications, occupation and income. The issue of low penetration of mutual funds can be by increasing the level of financial literacy of Indian investors.

Keywords: mutual funds; investments; awareness of mutual funds; financial literacy; India; Indore; investors' perception; investors; fixed deposits; preferred channel of investment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2021.111960

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2021 Vol.27 No.1, pp.51 - 69

Received: 23 Sep 2017
Accepted: 02 Nov 2018
Published online: 22 Dec 2020 *

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