Aktsiatesse ja ETF investeerimise võimalused ja riskid ärinduse ja halduse õppekava näitel

Investing is becoming more and more important every year and many people are starting to invest more. There are many different ways to invest and there are different financial instruments to invest in. In this dissertation, two financial instruments were identified, which were shares and ETF-s (exchange traded funds). Several studies on people’s investment knowledge have been conducted in previous years. However, knowledge of investment opportunities and risks will change over time and it is a good idea to continue researching people’s investment knowledge to identify bottlenecks that may need more attention. The aim of the dissertation was to find out the knowledge about investing in shares and ETFs on the example of the business and administration curriculum group. The choice of the topic was based on the topicality of the dissertation topic, which has become more and more relevant in recent years, where stock markets are constantly fluctuating and it is increasingly recommended to use ETFs for investment. In the dissertation, the concepts related to investing were explained. We learned more precisely what is a share security, which shows the right of its owner to share in the company’s assets and profits. ETFs, or exchange traded funds, may not be as well known, but they are a set of securities that can be bought and sold through a brokerage firm or on a stock exchange. The dissertation provided a clearer picture of the nature of an investment, where an investment is understood as an activity where money is invested in a project, either to start or expand it, to buy property or interest, in order to increase income or increase value over time. Everything has both positive and negative qualities and is also an investment. It should be noted here that return on investment and risk go hand in hand, but being aware of the investment opportunities and risk in different investment instruments gives a stronger sense of making profitable decisions. In this work, the opportunities and risks of both asset classes were described separately. The last subchapter of the theoretical part also presents a comparison table for assessing the opportunities and risks of the two asset classes. We can see that the investment can be very positive and especially long-term investing for these asset classes. Equities and ETF-s are different, but investing in them is very similar. By investing in shares, it is possible to become a part of the owner of the company and it is also possible to participate in the general meeting of shareholders. ETFs have lower investment risk, lower fees and can be traded at any time. The most negative aspects of investing in these two asset classes were as follows: they can be more time consuming, there is no direct control over the investment, you can miss out on large losses and, for example, there is no liquidity. The dissertation survey was conducted in a web based environment using the Google Forms survey and used a quantitative data collection method. The survey was conducted among the students of the business and administration curriculum group of Tallinn University of Technology. Based on the empirical results, proposals were prepared that would help to supplement the curriculum of business and administration of Tallinn University of Technology with an investment research group. It would be advisable to create investment electives for the curriculum in business and administration. In addition, more training or lectures on investment should be provided and to which guest lecturers and well-known investment gurus would be invited. All the research tasks set in the dissertation were fulfilled and based on the conclusions it was possible to make proposals for the development of business and administration curricula at Tallinn University of Technology. The dissertation provides a good overview of investment awareness bottlenecks, which, if addressed, would help to raise the general investment awareness among the students of the business and administration curriculum group. Tallinn University of Technology will benefit from this dissertation, which will be able to introduce changes to supplement business and administration curricula based on these results, and hopefully students will take Tallinn University of Technology into account in their submissions in the curriculum development plan.