While many senior executives continue to talk about the "voice of the customer," few demonstrate their commitment to this concept by spending time with customers. Many continue to use their intuition or `golden gut' in their attempt to provide superior customer value. Unfortunately, `senior executive intuition' is rarely attuned to the needs of their customers. While the competitive environment continues to intensify, executives have cut back on the time devoted to customers just when it should be increasing. This article discusses the need for senior executives to spend time with customers and provides examples of the benefits that this approach will provide.

Consumer behavior from the marketing world and financial economics has brought together to the surface an exciting area for study and research: Behavioral finance. The realization that this is a serious subject is, however, barely dawning. s seem to treat financial markets as an aggregate of statistical observations, technical and fundamental analysis. A rich view of research waits this sophisticated understanding of how financial markets are also affected by the "financial behavior" of investors. With the reforms of industrial policy, public sector, financial sector and the many developments in the Indian money market and capital market, mutual funds, which has become an important portal for the small investors, is also influenced by their financial behavior. Hence, this study is an attempt to examine the related aspects of the fund selection behavior of individual investors towards mutual funds, in the city of Mumbai. From the researchers and academicians point of view, such a study will help in developing and expanding knowledge in this field.

The Indian capital market has been growing tremendously with the reforms in industrial policy, reforms in public and financial sector, and new economic policies of liberalization, deregulation and restructuring. The Indian economy has opened up and many developments have been taking place in the Indian capital market and money market with the help of financial system and financial institutions or intermediaries which foster savings and channel them to their most efficient use. One such financial intermediary who has played a significant role in the development and growth of capital markets is Mutual Fund (MF).

The concept of MFs has been on the financial landscape for long, though in a primitive form. The story of mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of the Unit Trust of India, an initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank. The launching of innovative schemes in India has been rather slow due to prevailing investment psychology and infrastructural inadequacies. risk-averse investors are interested in schemes which involves tolerable capital risk and return over bank deposit. This fact has restricted the launching of more risky products in the Indian capital market. But this objective of the MF industry has changed over the decades. For many years, funds were more of a service than a product, the service being professional money management. However, in the last 15 years, MFs have evolved to be a product.

The IUP Journal of Behavioral Finance, A Study of Fund Selection Behavior of Individual Investors Towards Mutual Funds: With Reference to Mumbai City, Kavitha Ranganathan, technical and fundamental analysis, Indian money market and capital market, mutual funds, small investors.