Role of big-five personality traits in predicting behavioral intention: A case of Indian corporate bond investors

Personality traits are qualities that make a person distinctive and describe stable behavior patterns. Therefore, understanding the influence of personality traits on behavioral intention will help predict investors’ investment decisions. This study aims to assess the impact of personality traits, i.e., openness to experience, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion, on investors’ behavioral intentions. Moreover, it assesses the mediating effect of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control between investors’ personality traits and behavioral intention. The study employed a structured questionnaire on a sample of 413 retail investors. Further, obtained data were empirically examined on Smart-PLS 3.3 using the PLS-SEM method. The study found that perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and attitude positively affected behavioral intention. However, the personality traits did not influence the intention directly. Further, mediation analysis revealed that attitude and subjective norm fully mediated the relationship between extraversion, neuroticism, openness, and intention. In contrast, attitude and subjective norms did not exhibit a mediating relationship between agreeableness, conscientiousness, and intention. Finally, perceived behavioral control fully mediated the relationship between personality traits and intention, except for conscientiousness. The study contributes by extending the applicability of the theory of planned behavior by examining the impact of big-five personality traits on behavioral intention and mediating the role of the theory of planned behavior’s dimension between personality traits and intention.