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This chapter explores Prospect Theory — a descriptive model of modelling individual choice making under risk and uncertainty, and its applications to a range of travel behaviour contexts.

The chapter provides background on Prospect Theory, its basic assumptions and formulations, and summarises some of its theoretical developments, applications and evidence in the field of transport research.

A body of empirical evidence has accumulated showing that the principle of maximisation of expected utility provides limited explanation of travel choices under risk and uncertainty. Prospect Theory can be seen as an alternative and promising framework for travel choice modelling (although not without theoretical and practical controversy). These findings are supported by empirical observations reported in the literature reviewed in this chapter.

The chapter provides a detailed account of the design and results of accumulated research in travel behaviour research that is based on Prospect Theory’s observations, insights and formulations. The potential of Prospect Theory for particular decision-making in travel behaviour research is articulated, main findings are presented and discussed, and limitations are identified, leading to further research needs.

Purpose – This chapter examines the impact of oil price volatility on domestic political stability in a key supplier state.

Methodology – This chapter uses prospect theory to analyse socio-political instability based on significant changes in a supplier state's largest revenue source. Prospect theory posits that decisions are framed around a pivotal reference point which may or may not correspond to the status quo, but which nonetheless directly affects risk appetite. This analysis uses Iran as a case study, and relative oil price as the reference point to analyse risk-acceptant decision-making surrounding the 2009 Presidential election.

Findings – Dramatic economic context could be a contributing factor to risk-acceptant behaviour in domestic politics. Specifically, volatile price swings in Iran's main source of income, oil, which contributes over 80 per cent in direct and indirect revenue, and perceived external decline therein, may have been a destabilising factor. Combined with loss aversion, this context may have facilitated measures beyond those dictated by rational utility calculus to secure conservative rule in the 2009 election, and in the ensuing unrest.

Research Limitations – Prospect theory is difficult to test outside of carefully framed laboratory experiments. Although its insights have been applied to investment behaviour, management and domestic politics, in conflict studies, robust empirical support remains underdeveloped. Moreover, since prospect theory is an individual model of decision-making, difficulties arise when dealing with nation states with multiple centres of power.

Implications – Prospect theory may be a useful analytic tool for analysing risk-acceptant decision-making in the context of dynamic economic situations.

Originality – Although this analysis complements research on rentier state theory, prospect theory integrates recent developments in behavioural economics and political psychology that may offer a new way to conceptualise the role of expectations and choice framing in decision-making which drives political stability.

To: evaluate Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory as functional models of decision making and risk within various contexts; compare and analyze risk models and decision‐making models; evaluate models of stock risk developed by Robert Engle and related models; establish whether the models are related and have the same foundations; relate risk, decision making and options theory; and develop the foundations for a new model of decision making and risk named “belief systems”.

Critiques existing academic work in different contexts. Analyzes the shortcomings of various measures of risk, and group decision making, which was not addressed in developing Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory. Develops the characteristics of a mew model for decision making and risk named “belief systems”, and then differentiates it from belief networks.

Decision making is a multi‐factor, multi‐dimensional process that often requires the processing of information, and thus, it is inaccurate to impose rigid models in decision making; the existing metrics for quantifying risk are inadequate; Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory were developed using questionable methods and data, and are impractical; the analysis of probabilistic insurance and most of the theories and “effects” developed by Kahneman and Tversky's articles are invalid and impractical; Prospect Theory, Cumulative Prospect Theory, Expected Utility Theory, and market‐risk models are conceptually the same and do not account for many facets of risk and decision making; risk and decision making are better quantified and modeled using a mix of situation‐specific dynamic, quantitative and qualitative factors; belief systems can better account for the multi‐dimensional characteristics of risk and decision making.

Areas for further research include: development of dynamic market‐risk models that incorporate asset‐market psychology, liquidity, market size, frequency of trading, knowledge differences among market participants, and trading rules in each market; and further development of concepts in belief systems.

Decision making and risk assessment are multi‐criteria processes that typically require some processing of information, and thus cannot be defined accurately by rigid quantitative models; Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory are abstract, rigid, and are not practical models for decision making; and existing market‐risk models are inaccurate, and thus the international financial system may be compromised.

The issues discussed are relevant to government regulators, central banks, judges, risk managers, executives, derivatives regulators, stock exchange regulators, legislators, psychologists, boards of directors, finance professionals, management science/operations research professionals, health‐care‐informatics professionals, scientists, engineers, and people in any situation that requires decision making and risk assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how heuristics are formed and whether herding and prospect theory act as antecedents to heuristics. The relationship is explored specifically for millennials.

The proposed relationship is explored specifically for millennials. Herding and prospect theory are modelled as antecedents to heuristics. The study uses survey data from 923 millennials from India to test the model for two financial products: equity and mutual funds. Regression analysis is used to evaluate the model.

Findings support the role of herding and prospect theory as antecedents to heuristics of millennials although to varying degrees for equity and mutual fund investments. The impact of herding on heuristics is likely to be smaller for equity investments as compared to mutual fund investments.

The findings provide insights into how heuristics are formed for millennials. The findings add to literature by beginning a new line of inquiry on how heuristics are formed. Since the model is tested on a single generation, future research can test the model on other generations. In addition, future research can also add more antecedents to our proposed model.

Findings from this study can provide financial planners and marketers with an understanding of how heuristics are formed for millennials. Financial planners can use these insights while providing financial advice to this generation and marketers can use them to create more relevant outreach.

Financial investments are an important conduit for financial security. By understanding the cognitive processes that influence financial investment decision-making, it is possible for educators to create content appropriately and for financial planners to advise clients accordingly to enable optimal financial decisions that will be wealth-creating.

Existing literature primarily treats heuristics, herding and prospect theory as being independent of each other. The authors take a novel approach to model the antecedents to heuristics to be herding and prospect theory. The model is tested on millennials for two financial products: equity and mutual funds.

With respect to multi-stage group risk decision-making problems in which all the attribute values take the form of grey number, and the weights of stages and decision makers are unknown, the purpose of this paper is to propose a new decision-making method based on grey target and prospect theory.

First, the sequencing and distance between two grey numbers are introduced. Then, a linear operator with the features of the “rewarding good and punishing bad” is presented based on the grey target given by decision maker, and the prospect value function of each attribute based on the zero reference point is defined. Next, weight models of stages and decision makers are suggested, which are based on restriction of stage fluctuation, the maximum differences of alternatives and the maximum entropy theory. Furthermore, the information of alternatives is aggregated by WA operator, the alternatives are selected by their prospect values.

The comprehensive cumulative prospect values are finally aggregated by WA operator, alternatives are selected or not are judged by the sign of the comprehensive prospect theory, if the prospect value of alternative is negative, the corresponding alternative misses the group decision makers’ grey target, on the contrary, if the prospect value of alternative is positive, the corresponding alternative is dropped into the group decision makers’ grey target, the alternative with positive prospect value whose value is the maximum is selected.

Compared with the traditional decision-making methods using expected utility theory which suppose the decision makers are all completely rational, the proposed method is based on irrational which is more in line with the decision maker’s psychology. And this method considers the decision maker’s psychological expectation values about every attribute, different satisfactory grey target about attributes will directly affect decision-making result.

Theories on industrial buying behavior differ fundamentally with regard to motivation and direction of industrial purchasing decisions. This becomes extremely in the case of new institutional economics, highlighting administrative aspects, and market process theory, focusing on entrepreneurial aspects of buying decisions. This paper aims to challenge these approaches by setting up an experimental design. Decisions of sales and purchasing managers were investigated with respect to their motivation of self‐protection or opportunity seeking.

The contribution is based on an experimental design. The design is based on a prospect theory scenario. Prospect theory states that successful economic agents show a stronger tendency towards self‐protection, whereas under‐performing economic agents are willing to bear greater risks in search for opportunities.

The results suggest that indeed out‐performers show a tendency to risk avoidance and under‐performers are willing to bear more risks. The most important implication is that new institutional economics‐based approaches to buying behavior are not universally valid. However, they apply to specific situations. In that respect the contribution shows a direction for the proper application of transaction cost‐based concepts.

Managers are advised to take the economic performance of their customer companies into account. Outperforming companies are more responsive to measures for self‐protection. Under‐performing customers may be more tolerant towards risk if it is compensated with the expectation of better opportunities.

The empirical research is new in so far as it is the first to apply a prospect theory framework to a business market environment. The results show clearly that the methodology, as originally applied in prospect theory, needs refinement when transferred to a business market context.

To: evaluate Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory as functional models of decision making and risk within various contexts; compare and analyze risk models and decision‐making models; evaluate models of stock risk developed by Robert Engle and related models; establish whether the models are related and have the same foundations; relate risk, decision making and options theory; and develop the foundations for a new model of decision making and risk named “belief systems”.

Critiques existing academic work in different contexts. Analyzes the shortcomings of various measures of risk, and group decision making, which was not addressed in developing Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory. Develops the characteristics of a mew model for decision making and risk named “belief systems”, and then differentiates it from belief networks.

Decision making is a multi‐factor, multi‐dimensional process that often requires the processing of information, and thus, it is inaccurate to impose rigid models in decision making; the existing metrics for quantifying risk are inadequate; Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory were developed using questionable methods and data, and are impractical; the analysis of probabilistic insurance and most of the theories and “effects” developed by Kahneman and Tversky's articles are invalid and impractical; Prospect Theory, Cumulative Prospect Theory, Expected Utility Theory, and market‐risk models are conceptually the same and do not account for many facets of risk and decision making; risk and decision making are better quantified and modeled using a mix of situation‐specific dynamic, quantitative and qualitative factors; belief systems can better account for the multi‐dimensional characteristics of risk and decision making.

Areas for further research include: development of dynamic market‐risk models that incorporate asset‐market psychology, liquidity, market size, frequency of trading, knowledge differences among market participants, and trading rules in each market; and further development of concepts in belief systems.

Decision making and risk assessment are multi‐criteria processes that typically require some processing of information, and thus cannot be defined accurately by rigid quantitative models; Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory are abstract, rigid, and are not practical models for decision making; and existing market‐risk models are inaccurate, and thus the international financial system may be compromised.

The issues discussed are relevant to government regulators, central banks, judges, risk managers, executives, derivatives regulators, stock exchange regulators, legislators, psychologists, boards of directors, finance professionals, management science/operations research professionals, health‐care‐informatics professionals, scientists, engineers, and people in any situation that requires decision making and risk assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with interval grey-stochastic multi-attribute decision-making problems. It proposes a VIKOR method based on prospect theory in which probabilities and the attribute value are both grey numbers.

In the prospect theory the results values and probability weight are used while the utility and probability values in the expected utility theory, which the more realistically reflect and describe the decision makers on the optimal process. VIKOR method makes the decision acceptable superiority and decision process stability. At the same time, a new interval grey number entropy is put forward, which is used to calculate the index weight of unknown.

The paper provides a VIKOR method based on prospect theory in which probabilities and the attribute value are both grey numbers. And the validity and feasibility of the method are illustrated by an example.

Although VIKOR is much closer to PIS than TOPSIS, at the same time VIKOR method can get the compromise solution with priority, researchers are encouraged to carry on comparative study further.

The paper includes interval grey-stochastic multi-attribute decision-making method and implications. The validity and feasibility of the method are illustrated by a case.

This paper proposes a VIKOR method based on prospect theory in which probabilities and the attribute value are both interval grey numbers. At the same time, a new interval grey number entropy is put forward, which is used to calculate the index weight of unknown.

The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret the findings from different sources on the corporate decisions during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 is a new phenomenon; grounded theory research approach is adopted to develop propositions on prospect theory and strategic decisions. The paper examines and interprets the findings from different sources on the corporate decisions during COVID-19.

Conventionally, it is believed that innovation brings risks, and individuals preferred certainty over uncertainty, even if the gains under uncertainty were twice as high. But, the results of the study indicate a divergent trend. Under threat perceptions of risks, companies explore significant opportunities and possibilities for organizational growth.

The study provides a framework to analyze the strategic decisions of corporate enterprises. The decisions replicate value function as concave in a gain situation and convex in a loss realm in times of pandemic crises.

This paper uses “actions taken” by enterprises offering various solutions in the testing times. The study is multidisciplinary in nature; it analyses the transformation strategic decisions in the context of economic and social dimensions for surviving the pandemic crises. The study provides a foundation for future research, as inferences are based on select examples.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test dominant theories and assumptions in behavioral finance, using data from the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

The empirical analysis has three parts: to test the assumption of risk aversion; to examine the dominant theory that the optimal portfolio depends on risk preferences; and to test prospect theory that decision makers prefer certain outcomes over probable outcomes. Finally, an alternative model to test prospect theory is introduced.

The proposed model is more flexible than prospect theory since it does not a priori assume what value of the portfolio induces risk aversion/seeking, while it does not a priori preclude linear preferences. Empirical results show that: investors are risk seeking; a change in the sign of preferences does not necessarily imply a change in the sign of wealth/return and vice versa; and the optimal portfolio does not depend on preferences.

These findings are helpful to risk managers dealing with models of behavioural finance.

The contribution of this paper is that it successfully tests fundamental theories and assumptions in behavioral finance by providing a better alternative to prospect theory in several ways.