A research team from the University of Coimbra is studying how psychological characteristics of financial managers in small and medium-sized enterprises influence decisions related to liquidity and debt. This research, called PSYFIN, is coordinated by Filipe Coelho, a faculty member at the UC School of Economics and researcher at the Centre for Research in Economics and Management, and is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology.
The study analyzes factors such as mindfulness, associated with deliberate attention in the present moment, and regulatory focus, linked to the way individuals orient their behavior to achieve goals. The first results were obtained from 449 questionnaires completed by financial managers of SMEs in Portugal.
The collected data indicate that high levels of mindfulness are associated with greater liquidity retention. Financial decision-makers with higher levels of mindfulness typically exhibit greater emotional regulation, lower impulsivity, and lower levels of overconfidence. Mindfulness has also been associated with greater ethical awareness, which may reinforce concern for the protection of organizational resources.
The study also points to a reduction in risk appetite among these decision-makers, resulting in a preference for more conservative financial policies, with this effect being more pronounced in companies with greater longevity. According to Filipe Coelho, the project contributes to a deeper understanding of how individual psychological characteristics influence business financial decisions and the factors that affect liquidity policies.
