Institution: | 1.Faculty of Business Administration, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3, Canada ;2.Department of Business Administration and Tourism and Hospitality Management, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, NS, B3M 2J6, Canada ; |
Abstract: | Warren Buffett has had extraordinary success as an investor, but there is no agreement as to why. Some academic researchers attribute his performance to mere luck. Frazzini et al. (Financ Anal J 74(4):35–55, 2018), concluded that his alpha is due to leveraging safe, high-quality, and cheap stocks. However, there has been no analysis to date of Buffett’s performance from a behavioral perspective. We argue that Buffett’s success is partly due to qualitative and psychological factors, including tenacity, patience, avoidance of overconfidence, organizational culture, and the reputation effect. Using information from shareholder letters, writings, interviews, and speeches by Buffett and his colleague Charlie Munger, we demonstrate how such psychological factors, together with the quantitative findings of Frazzini et al., render a more complete and satisfying explanation of Buffett’s alpha. |