A Survey of the Factors Influencing the Investment Decisions of the Iranian Armed Forces’ Pension Fund

Considering the critical role of pension funds in safeguarding social security, as well as their standing as one of the most important social and economic institutions within economies, the investment performance of these institutions is vital for overcoming the financial crisis plaguing some of these funds currently, and thus, enhancing social welfare. This paper investigates the factors influencing the investment decisions of the Iranian Armed Forces Pension Fund. For this purpose, this paper first gathered the opinions of academic and executive experts, including board members of the subsidiary companies of the Iranian pension funds and academics working on pension funds’ investments through conducting a questionnaire. Thereafter, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test the validity of the instruments, and Cronbach's alpha was calculated to assess the reliability of the questionnaire and its dimensions. The results obtained point towards the critical role of five key factors including managerial, structural, laws and regulations, financial market conditions, as well as social and economic factors influencing the investment decisions of the Armed Forces Pension Funds. Furthermore, the paper finds that structural factors have more impact than other components understudy.