Blasco de las Heras, NatividadCorredor Casado, María PilarFerreruela Garcés, Sandra2015-10-272015-10-2720120810-5391 (Print)1467-629X (Electronic)10.1111/j.1467-629X.2011.00412.xhttps://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/18651This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Blasco, N., Corredor, P. and Ferreruela, S. (2012), Market sentiment: a key factor of investors’ imitative behaviour. Accounting & Finance, 52: 663–689, which has been published in final form at doi: 10.1111/j.1467-629X.2011.00412.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.The aim of this paper is to explore herding behavior among investors in order to determine its rational and emotional component factors and identify relationships among them. We apply causality tests to evaluate the impact of return and market sentiment on herding intensity. The herding intensity is quantified using the measure developed by Patterson and Sharma (2006). The research was conducted during the period 1997-2003 in the Spanish stock market, where the presence of herding has been confirmed. The results reveal that the herding intensity depends on past returns and sentiment or subjective assessments and confirm the presence of both a rational and an emotional factor.application/pdfeng© 2011 The Authors. Accounting and Finance © 2011 AFAANZHerdingStock marketBehavioral financeSentimentinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess