Conceptualisation and Measurement of Financial Competence
This Open access book offers a pivotal contribution to the field of financial literacy research as it advances the understanding of financial literacy as a holistic competence encompassing cognition, motivation, emotion, attitude, behaviour and their interrelationships. It provides a comprehensive overview and evaluation of concepts, constructs and frameworks related to financial literacy and instruments used to measure financial competence. The work also discusses identification, synthesis and systematisation of a wide range of cognitive and non-cognitive influences on financial behaviour. The book not only introduces a unique, holistic model of financial competence, but also presents a draft of an innovative technology-based test instrument designed to simulate and trace complex financial decision-making processes and elucidate challenges confronted in complex problem-solving situations. The aim of this book is to shift from an isolated focus on individual cognitive facets (mainly knowledge) to a holistic modeling of competence in order to systematise the landscape of research on financial literacy and financial competence. The work is instrumental for researchers, educators and policymakers in advancing their understanding and methodologies and in paving the way for effective financial education interventions and promoting financially competent behaviour.
Prof. Dr. Manuel Förster has been a professor of business and economics education at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, since 2019. His research interests include the modeling and assessment of financial competences and knowledge. His focus is on measuring financial behavior and problem-solving in complex ways to infer the underlying solution processes and activated dispositions. He is also interested in the individual and structural factors influencing young people's financial knowledge and competences and how these can be changed. He is one of the applicants and coordinator of the Action-oriented Financial Literacy (AFin) Network, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Prof. Dr. Mandy Hommel holds a professorship of vocational education and is vice president for teaching, didactics and professional development at OTH Amberg-Weiden, Germany. She is co-responsible for the network “Action-oriented Financial Literacy”, funded by German Research Foundation. She started her professional career completing a banking apprenticeship and further training, including a degree in banking management. While working for several years for major German banks, she studied business education and management training, gained her doctorate, and habilitated in this field. Her research focuses on reflection and professional development, sustainable teaching and learning processes, digitally-supported teaching and learning, research-based learning, workplace learning, informal learning from online information and attention. Her enduring interest in financial topics and financially literate behaviour is reflected in international collaborative studies and publications in this field.
