Soydas, Safak Sonmez

Purpose - This study explores how individual stock investors experience and interpret their decision-making processes beyond cognitive bias frameworks. It aims to reveal how investment decisions are shaped through cultural memory, moral values, social identity and digital environments, emphasizing the lived meanings investors attribute to risk, gain, and loss. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative phenomenological design was employed. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 active individual stock investors in T & uuml;rkiye. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step phenomenological method to identify the lived meaning structures underlying investment decision experiences. Findings - Investment decisions emerged as multidimensional experiences organized around four interrelated domains: cultural roots and collective economic memory, moral and religious tensions, social status and identity construction, and digitalization with emerging economic perceptions. Participants interpreted risk, gain, and investment outcomes through family narratives, moral and religious evaluations, identity-related concerns, and digitally mediated information environments rather than solely through rational calculations. Research limitations/implications - The findings are based on a limited qualitative sample and therefore cannot be statistically generalized. However, they contribute to a deeper theoretical understanding of investment behaviour by integrating cultural, moral, identity-related, and digital dimensions within a phenomenological behavioural finance perspective. Future research may build on these findings through mixed-method designs and cross-cultural comparisons. Practical implications - The findings support investor education programmes, decision-support systems and behavioural policy design by highlighting the experiential and meaning-based dimensions of investment decision-making. Social implications - The study demonstrates that investment decision-making is shaped by cultural values, moral interpretations, social identity processes and digitally mediated environments, suggesting that financial decisions are socially embedded rather than purely individual or rational. These findings may contribute to more socially sensitive financial literacy initiatives and policy development. Originality/value - This study extends behavioural finance by introducing a phenomenological lived-experience perspective, demonstrating that investment decision-making emerges through interacting cultural, moral, identity-related and digital meaning structures rather than solely through cognitive biases.

Soydas, Safak Sonmez; Cam, Alper Veli

The market value of firms is mainly affected by financial factors. Financial factors such as sales, profitability, changes in equity, debt structure, competitiveness, interest rates, and inflation affect the market value of firms positively or negatively. Additionally, even if the financial data of firms are investable, some nonfinancial factors can significantly affect the market value of firms. Many nonfinancial factors, such as political and social events, natural disasters, technological developments, government policies, investor confidence or distrust (behavioral finance), managerial changes, sectoral developments, and social media, can change the market value of firms by having a greater impact on their stock prices. Determining the level and timing of the impact of these financial or nonfinancial factors will help institutional or individual investors in their investment decisions. The primary objective of this study is to identify the financial and nonfinancial factors affecting the market value of firms operating in the aviation sector. In this context, the factors affecting the market value of the firms were analyzed using the fundamental analysis data of three firms whose stocks are traded in Borsa Istanbul, one of the emerging markets. In the study, abnormal declines in stock prices of these firms were identified, and the importance levels of the factors that caused them were tried to be revealed. In this direction, a fundamental analysis was performed using financial data obtained from the financial statements of airline companies from the years 2014-2023. The events in the world and Turkey during the relevant periods that affected the capital markets were analyzed and compared. The results of the study are important for both domestic and foreign investors who will invest based on the market value of companies operating in the aviation sector.

Soydas, Safak Sonmez

The renewable energy sector is an area that has received increasing attention in recent years and has significant growth potential worldwide. Factors such as limited traditional energy sources, environmental concerns, and climate change encourage using renewable energy sources. In this context, financing renewable energy companies has also gained great importance. Financing is a fundamental requirement for the implementation and expansion of renewable energy projects. However, the fact that renewable energy projects are generally high-cost and have long payback periods makes financing these projects difficult. Therefore, research on the financing of renewable energy companies is extremely important to understand and support the development of the sector. This study intends to ensure a theoretical viewpoint on the financing of renewable energy companies. The study will evaluate the general situation of the renewable energy sector, emphasize the importance of financing, and go over the impression of divergent financing sources on companies' growth strategies. Additionally, recommendations will be presented on the financing challenges faced by renewable energy companies and how these challenges can be overcome.