Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting Relações com investidores: Um estudo bibliométrico em finanças comportamentais, economia comportamental e contabilidade comportamental

: This study aims to map and characterize the scientific production on behavioral finance, behavioral economy and behavioral accounting, applied to the area of investor relations. Through a bibliometric research carried out in


Introduction
Behavioral finances emerged as an alternative to modern finance theory in an attempt to explain, more broadly, agents' decisions and behaviors.Simon (1955) presented the seminal ideas that would become this major area in finance.Further consolidation of concepts was made by Simon (1972) with the contributions from several major researchers.Advances in the next years were presented by Cyert and March (1963), Slovic (1972), and others contested the rationality of economic agents.According to Schinckus (2011), it was Shefrin andStatman (1984), andDe Bondt andThaler (1985) the first studies to describe empirically applications of behavioral finance.But it was only from the recognition of the studies by Kahneman and Tversky (1974;1979) with the Nobel Prize that behavioral finance became popular and its findings reached major audiences.The ideas that started with Simon (1955), and grew with a more academic than popular attention by almost half a century, saw in the turn of the millennia an inflection and suddenly began to develop and gain prominence.
In their studies, Kahneman and Tversky (1974;1979) demonstrated that economic agents do not always decide and act rationally, seeking to maximize their own well-being.Moreover, the willingness to take risks depends on the context or, more specifically, on how choice options are presented.Thus, the idea that agents are rational in financial decisions and other types of decisions has given way to the idea of limited rationality, in which failures in decision making are frequent and follow certain predefined patterns.
From then on, a way for a wide range of research was open, which started to link knowledge from various areas, such as economics, finance, psychology, neuroscience, among others.This field of study has become increasingly prominent, leading researchers such as Daniel Kahneman, Robert Shiller, and Richard Thaller to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002Economics in , 2013Economics in , and 2017, respectively. , respectively.In addition, the number of studies on behavioral finance has been growing intensely in recent years, as can be seen in Figure 1, based on a research carried out on the Scopus database1 .
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1655 Revista BASEv.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023  Despite this growth shown in Figure 1, some themes within behavioral finance still deserve to receive more attention, such as investor relations.Investor relations are a field of study that represents 7% of the papers in Figure 1, with a production spaced in time, authors and focus.This is, to a certain extent, understandable, since as it is a recent area, many issues still need to be properly explored.However, considering that investor relations are considered a strategic area for organizations, which may even affect their evaluation by the market (NIRI, 2003), it is understood that this is a relevant theme, thus requiring more studies and research, mainly from the perspective of behavioral finance.
Given this context, this study seeks to answer the following problem question: What are the main characteristics of the scientific production on behavioral finance applied to the area of investor relations?
From this question emerges the main objective of the research, which is to map and characterize the scientific production on behavioral finance applied to the area of investor relations, through a bibliometric study.

Behavioral Finance
Modern finance theory, the prevailing paradigm for several decades, is founded on unrealistic assumptions about human behavior.Such assumptions imply the rationality of the agents, who seek to maximize their own well-being, have homogeneous beliefs and expectations, and can assimilate all available information, among other characteristics (Sharpe, 1964;Lintner, 1965).This theory, however, from such a perspective, failed to satisfactorily explain the various phenomena in the financial markets.
In the 1970s and 1980s, from the studies by Kahneman and Tversky (1974;1979), behavioral finance emerged as a response, at least in part, to the difficulties faced by traditional theory.According to Barberis and Thaler (2003), some financial phenomena can be better understood if we consider that the agents are not completely rational.That is, they do not update their beliefs correctly or make normatively questionable choices that are incompatible with the expected utility theory.
Behavioral finance, then, began to be extensively studied, and has developed rapidly, with increasing emphasis and significant findings.Among these findings are the various cognitive biases already identified (Das & Teng, 1999), which explain behaviors not understood by the traditional paradigm.Hirshleifer (2015) describes the process linked to cognitive biases and behavioral finance in general.According to him, people need to make decisions quickly and, to this end, they use mental shortcuts (known as heuristics) that operate automatically below the level of consciousness (Kahneman, Slovic & Tversky, 1982).Heuristics generally work well, but in certain situations they lead to errors in judgment and decision, the so-called cognitive biases.In addition, the mind works with a dual process, being an intuitive system (fast process) and a reasoning system (slow process) (Kesebir & Haidt, 2010).
Human thinking is largely intuitive (Kahneman, 2011) and when people are overly confident in their intuitive way of thinking, the chances of making mistakes in judgment and decisions are very high.
Therefore, behavioral finance can be understood, according to Sewell (2007), as "the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of financial professionals and the consequent effect on markets".
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1657Revista BASEv.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 This definition is in line with that presented by Shefrin (2010), who conceptualizes behavioral finance as "the application of psychology to financial decision making and financial markets".Therefore, we can understand that behavioral finance seeks, based on the knowledge of psychology, to understand the decisions and behaviors of agents and financial markets.
According to Costa, Carvalho, and Moreira (2019), behavioral finance originated from behavioral economics.According to them, behavioral finance focuses mainly on errors of judgment and decision making of financial investments.Behavioral economy, in its turn, is broader, focusing on issues such as demand, consumption, price, investments, management decisions, among others.Even with relatively different focuses, these two areas are related, as they seek to explain the decisions and behavior of agents and markets.
When it comes to investor relations, another area that can be associated with behavioral finance is behavioral accounting.This area, although with less significant numerical production than behavioral finance, is relevant in its contributions, as it is directly linked to the control and communication of economic and financial events of organizations, the basis for the financial decision making of managers and investors.
According to Balachandran (1985), behavioral accounting is the application of social science concepts to areas such as budgeting, decision making, control and financial reporting, focusing on the "human element".Behavioral accounting, although with more normative characteristics, focuses on study objects that are also targets of behavioral economics and finance.Thus, for this study, the term behavioral finance will be extended to also include studies in the field of behavioral economics and behavioral accounting.

Investor Relations
Investor relations are an area of great importance to publicly traded companies, as they develop communication and relationships between the organization and stakeholders such as investors, creditors, suppliers, regulatory and supervisory agencies, among others.
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1658Revista BASEv.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 According to Marston and Straker (2001), investor relations can be understood as the communication of company-related information to the financial community, analysts, investors, and potential investors.Rao and Sivakumar (1999), in their turn, define investor relations as a "strategic corporate marketing activity".These definitions, while describing basic investor relations activities, suggest a one-way flow of information from the company to shareholders.
A more complete and widely used definition is presented by the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI).According to the NIRI (2003), investor relations can be understood as a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing, and compliance with securities laws to enable more effective two-way communication between the company, the financial community and others, contributing for the company to achieve a fair market value.This definition, for Gackowski (2017), contemplates two relevant aspects.First, a legal aspect of complying with the law and communicating company information to shareholders; and, second, a spontaneous aspect of establishing a bilateral relationship with the financial community and, especially, investors.Two other aspects, however, can be highlighted in this definition: the strategic aspect, since investor relations must be planned and part of the organization's strategy; and the influence of investor relations on company value, as financial market agents are alert to any new information that might influence investment decisions.
According to Hoffmann and Fieseler (2012) state that investor relations should provide the financial and non-financial information necessary for capital market participants to create an adequate and ideally affirmative understanding of the company's assets, strategy, and development.The way information is presented, however, as demonstrated by Tversky and Kahneman (1981), can positively or negatively influence shareholders' perceptions and, consequently, the company's image and market value.
The association between investor relations and behavioral finance is, therefore, critical to the success of organizations.
In addition, Laskin (2011) states that one of the main functions of investor relations is to build relationships with the financial community: shareholders, professionals, investors, financial analysts, stock exchanges, and so on.Such relationships, as already widely shown in behavioral science studies, are

Previous Studies
Although studies focused on behavioral finance applied to the investor relations area are of great relevance, no previous bibliometric studies associating these two main axes were found.Nevertheless, we considered relevant to present the bibliometric studies found on behavioral finance 2 , aiming to show the criteria and procedures adopted.The studies found are detailed in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Bibliometric studies on behavioral finance
Even though it is an area of growing relevance, only three bibliometric studies on behavioral finance were found in the following databases: Scopus Database, Spell and Google Scholar.These studies 2 Search carried out on November 05, 2018 in the databases: 1) SCOPUS, with the terms "behavioral finance" and "bibliometric" or "bibliographic" or "conceptual" or "theoretical", limited to: title, abstract, and keywords.2) SPELL, with the term "behavioral finance", limited to: title; and 3) Google Scholar, with all terms mentioned above, alternated.Only articles published in international scientific journals were considered.
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1660 Revista BASEv.20,n.2, abril/junho 2023 vary in terms of the search terms adopted and the periods of publications considered, but the three researched the same database, Web of Science.In addition, all authors are Brazilian, which may indicate a regional interest in the systematization of this subject.
Another important aspect is that the most recent and most relevant studies, such as Costa, Carvalho and Moreira (2019) and Costa et al. (2017), associate the areas of behavioral finance, economics, and accounting, showing an interest in broadening the scope of publications related to behavioral finance or its objects of study.

Methodology
This study is characterized as theoretical and conceptual (Rocco & Plakhotnik, 2009) and uses bibliometric analysis (Baumgartner, 2010;Zupic & Cater, 2015).Bibliometric analysis can be understood as the application of techniques for the quantification, identification, and analysis of patterns in literary or scientific production on a given subject (Broadus, 1987).
The data source adopted for this research was the Scopus database.Although other studies have used the Web of Science database, as shown in Figure 2, Bergman (2012) argues that the Scopus database presents rigorous indexing and higher citations count.In addition, according to Harzing and Alakangas (2016), is larger than other databases.Thus, we opted for using the Scopus database.
To determine the search criteria, a key step in bibliometric research, a sociolinguistic approach was adopted, admitting the evolution of language when searching terms and considering the use in different environments, both academic and professional.Hence, the current terms, those currently being used, were the terms adopted for this research.
Concerning behavioral finance, the terms were selected based on those used by recent studies and published in relevant journals, such as Costa, Carvalho and Moreira (2019) and Costa et al. (2017).These authors used the terms behavioral finance, behavioral economics, and behavioral accounting in their bibliometric research.The choice of these terms is justified as they are the most current terms and because these three areas often share objects of study, such as investor relations.Thus, the following terms were adopted for this study: behavioral finance, behavioral economics e behavioral accounting.
Regarding the selection of terms related to the investor relations area, it was necessary to broaden the research to include not only the academic terms, which resulted in more conceptual researches, but also the applied terms that included the reports and media.This comprised three steps: First we searched, on the Thomson Reuters Eikon 3 database, the five largest Ibovespa and S&P 500 companies, as shown in Figure 3. Second, we verified on these companies' websites the terms used related with investor relations.

Ibovespa
From these terms, the most common and related with this study's scope were selected.The selected terms were: investor relations, financial report, annual report, 10-k, financial statement, and financial information.In addition to these, as a third step, we also considered relevant to include the term disclosure, that appeared in our academic terms, which in the financial-accounting context refers to the disclosure of financial information for public access.
Therefore As a result, 121 publications were found.Given the few documents obtained and the predominance of studies in the format of articles and in the area of finance, economics, and accounting, as presented below, we chose not to apply any filter to the results.The publications base obtained was analyzed through the statistics presented by the Scopus database itself and the VOSviewer software (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010), which allows the mapping of bibliometric networks.

Results
Based on the procedures described in the previous topic and the results obtained, i.e. 121 publications, we proceeded to the analysis of the results, detailed below.The characteristics of these publications, such as type and area, are presented in Figures 4 and 5.As for the area of publications, as shown in Figure 5, 111 documents, about 92% of the 121 publications found, are within the areas of Economics, Econometrics, and Finance, or Business, Management, and Accounting, also, it is important to notice that the same publication may belong to more than one area.In addition, 21 documents are from the area of psychology, which may be directly linked to the focus of this study.Thus, as commented in the methodology section, the decision not to apply additional filters to the results is justified.
Regarding the period of publications, Figure 6 shows the number of publications obtained per year.

Figure 6. Number of publications per year
As can be seen in Figure 6, the number of publications begins to grow after 1999, from one publication in 2000 to 20 publications in 2018.Although this trend is not constant throughout this period, a more intense and significant growth in the last decade can be perceived, which can be confirmed by the results obtained by the t-test, presented in Table 1.This trend is further intensified in the last five years, 2014 to 2018, with an annual average of publications two times greater than the previous five years, 2009 to 2013.  1981986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991  1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006  According to the data presented in Table 1, it can be understood that the behavioral finance theme applied to the investor relations area has been gaining relevance over time, especially in the last two decades.The annual average of publications, going from one publication per year, from 1999 to 2003, to 13 publications per year, from 2014 to 2018, indicates this growing relevance and the progressive interest on the subject by researchers and journals.Also, considering a more immediate period, from 2016 to 2018, we can see in Figure 6 a growth of over 100% in the number of publications, from 9 publications in 2016 to 20 publications in 2018, which confirms that this is a current and timely topic for further research.The continuation of this growth trend, however, shall only be confirmed in the coming years.
Among the 121 publications found, the oldest article was Balachandran (1985), which presented the concept and an introduction to behavioral accounting.Regarding the most recent articles, three stood out: Martin, Boyer, Léger and Dumont (2019), who analyzed the cognitive effects on pattern recognition in financial information systems; Wang et al. (2019), who verified whether rumors on social networks and subsequent clarifications by companies affected abnormal stock returns; and Garcia-Blandon, Argilés-Bosch, and Ravenda (2019), who examined whether, in view of the quality of financial reporting, the auditor's gender affects audit quality.
The publications found originated from 39 countries, the most relevant, concerning the number of documents, are presented in Figure 7.
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1665 Revista BASEv.20, n.2, abril/  Figure 8 shows the citation network by country and the connections found, with the United States being the central element and the main link between the other countries.Regarding the institutions linked to publications, 160 institutions were found, of which 137 were rated to only one publication each.Among the other institutions, with two or more publications, we found that most are located in the United States.Figure 9 shows the top ten institutions, with the largest number of publications, listed by the Scopus database.As shown in Figure 9, few researches were found per institution, indicating that it might be a topic that has not been subject to continuous publications.In addition, the mapping of the citations network by institution 4 using the VOSviewer software showed only 17 connections between the institutions, suggesting that, as far as the researched theme is concerned, there is little relation among them.
Regarding the journals in which the publications occurred, 80 journals were identified, of which only 12 presented two or more published documents.Of the total of journals, therefore, 85% of them had only one publication on the subject.Journals with two or more publications are detailed in Figure 10, with their respective SJR impact factors (SCImago Journal Rank), available from the Scopus database.In addition, as shown in Figure 10, the journals with the highest impact factor, i.e., Journal of Accounting and Economics, Accounting Review, and Contemporary Accounting Research, presented few publications.On the other hand, the journal with the highest number of publications, Journal of Behavioral Finance, with 13 published studies, has a relatively low impact factor.This suggests that research on this subject have not been regularly published in the most relevant journals, which may be mainly due to the small or low quality of the research, or due to the low interest of journals in this subject.
Through the VOSviewer software, the connection between the 80 identified journals was verified.
Of these, only 10 were related to each other, once again showing few citations among the documents found.The map of the citations network by journal is presented in Figure 11.To verify which authors researched close or related subjects, we used bibliographic coupling, which allows us to verify authors who cite the same sources and share references.Thus, it was possible to identify groups of authors studying a common subject, as presented in Figure 14.As a criterion, we considered the occurrence of at least two documents per author, which resulted in only four main subjects, as shown in Figure 14.The first subject, with greater density in Figure 14, was approached by Hirshleifer and Teoh (2003a;2003b), Tauni, Fang, andIqbal (2016), andTauni, Rao, Fang andGao (2017), who verified the influence of different means of disclosure of financial information on investor behavior.The second subject, approached by Baginski, Demers, Kausar and Yu (2018), with Kausar being one of the authors, and Loughran and McDonald (2015), examined the linguistic tone used in financial reports and its possible consequences on investor behavior.The third subject, farther from the previous two, researched by Adjerid, Acquisti, Brandimarte and Loewenstein (2013), with Acquisti as coauthor, and Acquisti (2014), dealt with the transparency of the disclosed information and, although related to the companies' financial information, the authors' main focus was on consumers.The fourth subject, addressed by Loewenstein, Sunstein, and Golman (2014), refers to the rules imposed for the disclosure of information and their effects on their recipients, given the occurrence of psychological factors.
Regarding the main keywords found, we identified the most relevant terms, presented in Figure 15.Thus, from the terms presented in Figure 15, the following were selected: (1) sentiment analysis, which consists of the technique of analysis of opinion, positive or negative, expressed in a text; (2) decision making and the variation judgment and decision making, which is a subject that has been extensively studied in behavioral finance, given the influence of psychological factors on decisions; (3) limited attention, which refers to the limits of attention in terms of capacity and duration; (4) herding, regarding herd behavior, in which various agents act similarly without any planning; and finally, (5) disposition effect, which refers to the effect on which investors tend to quickly sell assets with earning and hold assets with loss over a longer period.These terms, although relevant in the context of behavioral finance, are quite insufficient to cover the researched area, as there are several other terms, such as various behavioral biases, that may be linked to the area of investor relations.Moreover, the occurrence of these terms cannot be considered significant among the publications analyzed, since, in the analysis by VOSviewer, it was limited to a minimum of two occurrences.Even so, these were the main terms identified by the VOSviewer software.

Results Discussion
Based on the results found and the analyses carried out, we can see that even in light of the relevance of the subject behavioral finance applied to investor relations, only 121 publications on the subject were identified, a number that might be considered small, given the importance of the investor relations.The emergence and the increasing number of studies on behavioral finance, with 1734 publications in the last 18 years (Figure 1), when compared to 121 publications of this subtopic shows that it still has opportunities to be explored more thoroughly.
In addition, as we were able to verify, there was no robust growth trend in the number of publications on the subject up to 2015.Only from 2016 can this trend be more strongly visualized.This period, however, between 2016 and 2018, is too short to ensure that this trend will materialize for a longer term, which would imply a growing interest on the topic.However, among the main subjects observed, through bibliographic coupling, some recent studies were identified, which may signal such direction.
Studies on the subject have been concentrated mainly in the United States, where the majority and main researchers, journals, and institutions related to the subject are also located.However, few publications per institution were found, in addition to few researchers and relevant journals related to the subject.Moreover, there was little connection between the various studies, researchers, and institutions, indicating the development of isolated research on specific subjects, and few contributions and partnerships between authors and institutions.Few relevant keywords related to behavioral finance were also identified, given the large number of terms related to this area, which may suggest limitations on the scope and subjects addressed by these publications.
Given this, we can assume that the subject of behavioral finance applied to investor relations is not considered an area of expertise in the academic context so far.From another perspective, however, the findings may indicate limitations that, while difficult to overcome, need more insistence and scientific vigor.Given the results obtained, the topic may represent good research opportunities, since it is a subject little explored and with plenty of field for further studies.

Conclusion
This study sought to systematize publications on a subject considered current and relevant, behavioral finance applied to investor relations.Behavioral finance, while still a recent field of study, has been of great interest and is growing rapidly.However, we found that, within the scope of behavioral finance, little attention has been given to investor relations.
Investor relations are an area of great relevance to publicly traded companies as they are responsible for developing a good relationship between the company and external stakeholders, such as current and potential investors.Such a relationship may contribute to improve the company's image, resulting in a possible increase in its market value, or negatively affecting it, leading to investor flight and market devaluation.Published papers by senior researchers and institutions are still unsystematic, suggesting that researchers have not remained, in a constant way, studying the subject.Thus, it can be concluded that the subject of behavioral finance applied to the investor relations area has not been contemplated, until now, by in-depth and systematic studies in the academic-scientific scope, although it arouses interest of eventual research.
On the other hand, the small number of publications found and the poor relationship between the researched subjects suggest a fertile field of research, still little explored, which may represent good opportunities for studies and publications.Thus, based on this study's findings, future research may take a longer look at the main themes found and verify which ones are still prominent for scientific deepening and new discoveries.
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1675Revista BASEv.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 This study contributes to the research of behavioral finance by pointing to a possible field of research that might be expanded and developed by future researchers.These contributions might be limited by the adoption of Scopus database, but, as argued in methods section, Scopus is seen by academic researchers as a more broad and rigorous.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Number of behavioral finance publications Source: Developed by the authors with data from Scopus database.
v.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 v.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 affected by beliefs, perceptions, feelings, among other factors, including the influence of various cognitive biases.Therefore, the relevance of research and financial studies involving investor relations and behavioral finance is justified.
Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________1661  Revista BASEv.20,n.2, abril/junho 2023 , the research criteria on the Scopus database was: (TITLE-ABS-KEY ("behavior* financ*" OR "behavior* economic*" OR "behavior* account*") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("investor* relation*" OR "financ* report*" OR "annual report*" OR "10*k" OR "financ* statement*" OR "financ* information" OR "disclosur*")).The term TITLE-ABS-KEY refers to the limitation of the search to title, 3 Consultation to the Thomson Reuters Eikon database, carried out on November 08, 2018, at 4:47 p.m. Investor relations: A bibliometric study in behavioral finance, behavioral economics and behavioral accounting ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1662 Revista BASEv.20,n.2, abril/junho 2023 abstract, and keywords.The wildcard character * (asterisk), in turn, allows any variation of the word to be included in the results.The search and data collections occurred in November, 2018.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Number of publications and citations by country (with repetitions)

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Citations network by country

Figure 9 .
Figure 9. Top institutions in number of publications

Figure 10 .
Figure 10.Top journals in number of publications

Figure 11 .
Figure 11.Citations network by journal

Figure 13 .
Figure 13.Citations network by author

Figure 14 .
Figure 14.Bibliographic coupling by author

Figure 15 .
Figure 15.Keyword map by occurrence v.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 v.20, n.2, abril/junho 2023 Research development in this field of study might contribute to enhance the investor relations communication strategies developed by companies and to the quality of analysis realized by investors of different degrees of professional skills.Providing accuracy and uniformity in financial decisions and contributing to enhance corporate governance.This might result in informatively more efficient markets.Even so, this study's results pointed to the possibility of development of further research on the subject.So far, publicized research still needs to develop a deeper relation between the researched subjects.

Table 1 .
T-test -Average publications every five years junho 2023