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Emotional economic man : calculation and anxiety in fund management
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Taffler, Richard J., Spence, Crawford and Eshraghi, Arman (2017) Emotional economic man : calculation and anxiety in fund management. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 61 . pp. 53-67. doi:10.1016/j.aos.2017.07.003
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2017.07.003
Abstract
Dominant theorisations of investment decision making remain firmly wedded to the notion of economic rationality, either as a postulate of how financial actors actually behave or as a normative ideal to which financial actors should strive. However, such frameworks have been developed largely without engaging financial market participants themselves. Based on 51 in-depth interviews with fund managers in various global financial centres, this article highlights a number of features of investment decision making that mainstream finance and behavioural approaches both fail adequately to describe. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, it is shown how the inherent uncertainty of the investment process engenders a state of endemic anxiety among fund managers. This anxiety is managed via a range of mental defences, both conscious and unconscious. The importance fund managers place on meeting and putting trust in company management to ‘perform’ for them can equally be viewed as a means of alleviating anxiety rather than having any direct economic purpose. This article, furthermore, brings to light the crucial role that calculative techniques play in dealing with anxiety. Rather than constituting a means of restoring rationality or correcting cognitive biases, calculation can actually reinforce ego defences while simultaneously perpetuating the myth of homo economicus. Fund managers can be characterised as ‘doing’ but ‘not doing’ and ‘knowing’ but ‘choosing not to know’ and have to manage not only their clients' funds, but their own personal anxiety as well.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Accounting Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Finance Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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| Journal or Publication Title: | Accounting, Organizations and Society | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Pergamon | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0361-3682 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | August 2017 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 61 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 53-67 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.aos.2017.07.003 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
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