The role of creative strategy, ad disclosure and regulatory focus in investors’ decision making: An experimental investigation

Abstract

Financial services organizations (hereafter, FSOs) constitute the primary business sector in the US economy. However, the forces of dynamic changes in economy, politics and governmental regulations, technology, competition and socio-demographic conditions are aggressively challenging today’s FSOs. Against this backdrop, financial services advertising (hereafter, FSA) has become of great importance for financial marketers and has attracted considerable interest from researchers, regulators and investor advocates. Nonetheless, surprisingly limited research has been carried out in this area regarding the impacts of FSA on retail investors and there are many aspects that can and should be investigated. In particular, given the uncertainties of the federal social security system, the recent trend in negative savings rates and the devastating effects of failing to adequately prepare for retirement, it is important to understand the effectiveness of FSA on retail investors’ information processing and decision making, which is an issue with theoretical, managerial and public policy implications.