Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Degree Discipline

Business Administration

Abstract

Persistent racial disparities in stock market participation constrain wealth accumulation among African American and Latino households. This study examined how two forms of representation, a firm’s cultural-sensitivity disclosure (an organizational signal) and the advisor’s racial identity, shape trust and investment intentions among these groups. Drawing on social identity theory, signaling theory, and the impression-formation/stereotype-reconciliation literature, this study hypothesized that disclosure and a minority advisor independently increase trust, that the cues would be complementary, and that trust would mediate their impact on investment intentions. A 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with African American and Latino adults tested predictions using ANOVA, ANCOVA, and PROCESS models. Disclosure increased trust, and trust was in turn associated with stronger investment intentions. Advisor race affected neither trust nor investment intentions. Perceived inclusivity and trust emerge as the mechanisms linking organizational signaling to investment intentions.

Keywords: cultural sensitivity, trust, investment intentions, advisor, identity

Committee Chair/Advisor

Anish Shankar Menon

Committee Member

Erick Kitenge

Committee Member

Yuebing Liu

Committee Member

Kathryn Holmstrom

Publisher

Prairie View A&M University

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

9/14/2026

Contributing Institution

J B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

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