Biases, Beliefs, and Maturity: How Age Shields Women Entrepreneurs From Heuristic Pitfalls in Financial Decision-Making

This study examines the influence of age on the investment decisions of women entrepreneurs, particularly in contexts where societal norms assign them primary responsibility for household responsibilities. The objective is to clarify the moderating role of age in the relationship between investment decision-making and behavioral biases. Data were collected from 260 women entrepreneurs operating small and medium-scale enterprises in Punjab, Pakistan, using a stratified sampling approach. Partial Least Square-Structural Equational Modeling(PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results show significant associations between overconfidence, anchoring, and availability biases and investment decision-making. However, the effect of representativeness bias depends on age as a moderator. The findings highlight the importance of age dynamics in understanding how behavioral biases shape investment decisions among female entrepreneurs in Pakistan. These insights can help policymakers design targeted interventions, such as specialized lending schemes and tax incentives, to support entrepreneurs across different age groups.