The Influence of Gender on the SRI Decision Making Process: A Study of Attitudes and Preferences using Conjoint Analysis

This paper investigates the attitudes and preferences of retail investors in regard to Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). In particular, it examines the impact of gender on the attitude gap that is evident from the difference between the positive attitudes that have been expressed by retail investors in Australian (KPMG/Resnick, 2000, Saulwick & Associates, 2001, and Watmore and Bradley, 2002) and the actual level of funds invested. A total of 322 usable questionnaires from two large Queensland organisations were received and analysed. We find that women have a more favourable attitude towards SRI criteria than men, who rank fees and performance criteria as most important. However, when it comes to actual investment decisions, these attitudes have little impact with both men and women basing their investment decisions on some of the traditional investment decision-making criteria, including past performance, star rating and fees. We conclude that investors are rational, wealth maximisers irrespective of their attitudes or gender.