Exploring Strategic Investment Experiences of CFOs in Navigating Market Uncertainty: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Strategic investment decision-making under market uncertainty is a critical concern in corporate finance, often dominated by rational and data-driven frameworks. However, little is known about how Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) personally experience and interpret uncertainty in high-stakes financial contexts. Despite growing interest in behavioral finance, there remains a limited understanding of the subjective processes that shape executive decision-making during volatile periods. This study investigates how CFOs make sense of uncertainty and arrive at strategic investment decisions based on personal experience, intuition, and crisis memory. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, this study explores the lived experiences of eight CFOs (7 males, 1 female) from publicly listed companies across the finance, energy, and technology sectors, each of whom had firsthand responsibility for guiding their organizations through major financial crises between 2008 and 2022. A total of 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to uncover meaning structures embedded in their narratives. The analysis revealed three key themes: the emotional burden of uncertainty, the role of past crises as decision-making anchors, and the dominance of intuitive judgment over algorithmic models. These findings suggest that strategic financial decisions are not purely analytical acts but are shaped by affective and experiential dimensions. The study contributes to a more holistic understanding of financial leadership and calls for greater attention to the human side of decision-making in volatile markets. These insights offer valuable implications for leadership development and open new directions for research in financial decision-making under uncertainty.