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Factors Influencing Individual Investor Behavior: An Empirical study of the
UAE Financial Markets
Hussein A. Hassan Al-Tamimi
Associate Professor
Department of Business Administration
College of Business and Management
University of Sharjah
P.O.Box 27272 ,Sharjah
United Arab Emirates
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Factors Influencing Individual Investor Behavior: An Empirical study of the
UAE Financial Markets
Abstract
This paper aims at identifying factors influencing the UAE investor behavior. It
develops a modified questionnaire. The questionnaire included thirty four items that
belonge to five categories, namely, self-image/ firm-image co-incidence; accounting
information; neutral information; advocate recommendations; and personal financial
needs. Six factors were found to be the most influencing factors on the UAE
investor behavior. The most influencing factor was in order of importance: expected
corporate earnings, get rich quick, stock marketability, past performance of the
firm’s stock, government holdings and the creation of the organized financial
markets. On the other hand, five factors were found to be the least influencing
factors on the UAE investor behavior. The least influencing factors in order of
importance were: expected losses in other local investments, minimizing risk,
expected losses in international financial markets, , family member opinions, gut
feeling on the economy. Two factors had unexpectedly least influence on the
behavior of the UAE investors behavior, namely the religious beliefs and the factor
of family member opinions.
JEL Classification: G1;G11
Keywords: Behavioral Finance; Investor Behavior; Influencing Factors
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Factors Influencing Individual Investor Behavior: An Empirical study of the
UAE Financial Markets
1.Introduction
Research in behavioral finance is relatively new. Within behavioral finance
it is assumed that information structure and the characteristics of market
participants systematically influence individuals’ investment decisions as well as
market outcomes. According to behavioral finance, investor market behavior
derives from psychological principles of decision making, to explain why people
buy or sell the stocks. Behavioral finance focuses upon how investors interpret
and act on information to make investment decisions. In addition, the behavioral
finance places an emphasis upon investor behavior leading to various market
anomalies.
Behavioral finance is defined by Shefrin(1999) as “ a rapidly growing area that
deals with the influence of Psychology on the behavior of financial practitioners”.
Behavioral finance research is developing rapidly and now beginning to answer
such questions as(see Taffler 2002):
• Why, when all the evidence shows investors cannot beat the market on any
systematic basis, they still resolutely do?
• How can we explain the stock market “bubbles” ?
• Why is the volume of trading in financial markets so excessive and why is the
stock market so volatile?
• Why do investment analysts have so much difficulty in identifying under-and
overvalued stocks?
• Why do stock prices appear to under-react to bad news?
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• why are acquisitions on average turn to be unsuccessful?
• Why do corporate managers find it so difficult to terminate loss making
projects?
• Why do most boards believe their companies are undervalued by the
stock market?
• Why should new issues exhibit short-run stock market out-performance and
then long-run under-performance?
A better understanding of behavioral processes and outcomes is important for
financial planners because an understanding of how investors generally respond
to market movements should help investment advisors in devising appropriate
asset allocation strategies for their clients.
This study aims at exploring the UAE investor’s behavior, representing the
first attempt to be undertaken in the UAE. The study is important for individual
investor, companies listed in Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities
Market and Government. For investors as decision makers, the most influencing
factor/ factors on their investment decision is crucial because this would affect their
future financial plans. For companies, identifying the most influencing factors on
their investors’ behavior would affect their future policies and strategies. Finally, for
government, identifying the most influencing factors on investors’ behavior would
affect the required legislations and the additional procedures needed in order to
satisfy investors’ desires and also to give more support to market efficiency.
Trading volume of Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Market was
highly fluctuated as Table 1, and Figures1 and 2, shown. Fluctuations in trading
volume indicates somehow the abnormal behavior of the UAE investor, which needs
to be investigated and this is the motivation behind the current study
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Table 1
Trading Volume of Duabi Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities
Market During the Period 2003-2004
Abu Dhabi Securities Market Duabi Financial Market Period
2003
15,927,660 5,810,252 January
5,582,589 7,748,459 Febrauary
4,003,950 16,008,869 March
10,284,210 9,417,368 April
12,209,402 16,217,862 May
23,468,035 9,255,823 June
15,508,190 46,579,561 July
19,896,455 17,785,482 August
34,467,643 37,724,421 September
33,845,497 38,246,562 October
19,883,296 27,743,935 November
37,126,854 93,697,467 December
2004
87,969,112 111,204,827 January
38,400,211 46,144,565 Febrauary
35,091,246 244,893,780 March
93,182,281 365,478,972 April
86,346,984 150,895,966 May
59,160,709 366,446,335 June
138,016,805 441,703,603 July
39,240,433 127,241,159 August
67,343,937 898,623,465 September
45,759,762 440,009,032 October
44,460,144 746,605,336 November
212,184,240 1183,052,359 December
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Figure 2
Trading Volume of Dubai Financial Market and Abu
Dhabi Securities Market in 2004
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months
No. of Stocks
Abu Dhabi
Securities
MarketDubai Financial
Market
Figure 1
Trading Volume of Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities
Market in 2003
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months
No. of
Stocks
Abu Dhabi
Securities Market
Dubai Financial
Market
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2.Literature Review
In this paper a comprehensive literature review about behavioral finance in
general is beyond the scope of the paper. Instead, the results of some empirical
studies about individual investor behavior will be highlighted. It should be noted
here that a substantial amount of attention has been given by researchers to the
institutional investor behavior, whereas less attention has been given to the
individual investor behavior which is the emphasis of this paper. However,
almost all these studies have dealt with investor’s behavior in industrialized
countries (e.g. USA, UK, Canada).
Kadiyala and Rau(2004) investigated investor reaction to corporate event
announcements. They concluded that investors appear to under react to prior
information as well as to information conveyed by the event, leading to the
different patterns: return continuations and return reveals, both documented in
long-horizon return. They found no support for the overreaction hypothesis.
Merikas et.al.,(2003) adopted a modified questionnaire to analyze factors
influencing Greek investor behavior on the Athens Stock Exchange. The results
indicate that individuals base their stock purchase decisions on economic criteria
combined with diverse other variables. They do not rely on a single integrated
approach, but rather on many categories of factors. The results also revealed that
there is a certain degree of correlation between the factors that behavioral finance
theory and previous empirical evidence identify as the influencing factors for the
average equity investor, and the individual behavior of active investors in the
Athens Stock Exchange(ASE) influencing by the overall trends prevailing at the
time of the survey in the ASE.
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Malmendier and Shanthikumar(2003) tried to answer the question: Are small
investor naïve?. They found that large investors generate abnormal volumes of
buyer-initiated trades after a positive recommendation only if the analyst is
unaffiliated. Small traders exert abnormal buy pressure after all positive
recommendations, including those of affiliated analysts.
Hodge(2003) analyzed investors’ perceptions of earnings quality, auditor
independence, and the usefulness of audited financial information. He concluded
that lower perceptions of earnings quality are associated with greater reliance on a
firm’s audited financial statements and fundamental analysis of those statements
when making investment decisions.
Krishnan and Booker(2002) analyzed the factors influencing the decisions
of investor who use analysts’ recommendations to arrive at a short-term decision to
hold or to sell a stock. The results indicate that a strong form of the analyst summary
recommendation report, i.e., one with additional information supporting the analysts’
position further, reduces the disposition error for gains and also reduces the
disposition error for losses
Nagy and Obenberger(1994) examined factors influencing investor
behavior. They developed a questionnaire includes (34) questions. Their
findings suggested that classical wealth – maximimization criteria are important
to investors, even though investors employ diverse criteria when choosing
stocks. Contemporary concerns such as local or international operations,
environmental track record and the firm’s ethical posture appear to be given only
cursory consideration. The recommendations of brokerage house, individual
stock brokers, family members and co-workers go largely unheeded. Many
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individual investors discount the benefits of valuation models when evaluating
stocks.
Epstein(1994) examined the demand for social information by individual
investors. The results indicate the usefulness of annual reports to corporate
shareholders. The results also indicate a strong demand for information about
product safety and quality, and about the company's environmental activities.
Furthermore, a majority of the shareholders surveyed also want the company to
report on corporate ethics, employee relations and community involvement.
De Bondt et al.,(1985) published a paper about behavioral finance in which
they asked the following question: “ Dos the stock market overreact?”, the article
gave evidence to support the hypothesis that cognitive bias ( investor over-
reaction to a long series of bad news could produce predictable mispricing of
stocks traded on the NYSE.
The main findings of the above studies can be summarized as follows:
1. There is no support for the overreaction hypothesis.
2. Investor over-reaction to a long series of bad news could produce predictable
mispricing of stocks
3. Classical wealth – maximimization criteria are important to investors.
4. The recommendations of brokerage house, individual stock brokers, family
members and co-workers go largely unheeded
5. A strong demand for information about product safety and quality, and about
the company's environmental activities
6. There exist a strong form of the analyst summary recommendation report, i.e.,
one with additional information supporting the analysts’ position further,
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reduces the disposition error for gains and also reduces the disposition error
for losses
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Research Questions
This study intends to answer the following questions:
QUESTION 1: Does the factors related to self- image/firm-image co-incidence
have an effect on the behavior of the UAE investor?, if so, what is the relative
importance of the effect of each factor on such behavior?
QUESTION 2: Does the factors related to accounting information have an effect
on the behavior of the UAE investor ?, if so, what is the relative importance of the
effect of each factor on such behavior?
QUESTION 3: Does the factors related to neutral information have an effect on the
behavior of the UAE investor?, if so, what is the relative importance of the effect of
each factor on such behavior?
QUESTION 4: Does the factors related to advocate recommendations have an
effect on the behavior of the UAE investor?, if so, what is the relative importance of
the effect of each factor on such behavior?
QUESTION 5: Does the factors related to personal financial needs have an effect
on the behavior of the UAE investor?, if so, what is the relative importance of the
effect of each factor on such behavior?
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3.2.The Questionnaire
This paper developed a modified questionnaire to examin the behavior of
the UAE investor. The questionnaire items represent five categories, namely self-
image/ firm-image coincidence; accounting information; neutral information;
advocate recommendation; and personal financial needs. Based on this questionnaire,
the most important item and the most important category will be identified. The
developed questionnaire includes thirty four items where ten items correspond to
self-image/ firm-image coincidence category, seven items correspond to accounting
information category. Seven items correspond to neutral information category, four
items to advocate recommendation and six items to personal financial needs.
Respondents were asked to indicate their degree of agreement with each of the items
on seven-point Likert scale.
The current study considers two factors in which they are not considered
before by previous published studies, namely the religious values beliefs and the
creation of the organized financial markets( i.e. Dubai Financial Market and Abu
Dhabi Securities Market). For the first factor, it is assumed that the religious reasons
should have a strong effect on the behavior of the UAE investor because of the vital
role of this factor in the UAE society as a Moslem and conservative society. It is also
hypothesized that the creation of the two organized financial markets in this
country, would have a positive effect on the behavior of the UAE investors..
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3.3. Data Collection
In order to get the answer on the research questions, 350 questionnaires were
randomly distributed to 350 individual investors in both Dubai Financial Market and
Abu Dhabi Securities Market. It is worth noting here that the number of investors
who dealt with Abu Dhabi Securities Market was 66,772 investors and 154,041
investors of Dubai Financial Market at the end of 2004. Local investors constitutes a
large proportion of total investors. For example at the end of 2004 this proportion
was around 94% in Abu Dhabi Securities Market and 89.5% in Dubai Financial
Market. The high proportion of local investors is mainly attributed to the current
regulations in which foreign investors are not allowed to hold shares of certain local
companies(i.e. the most popular and well known companies). The data provided
were then examined, the screening process resulted in excluding seven(7) responses
from the study because of missing data items. The remaining responses 343 represent
an effective response rate of around 98 percent of the total sample. The number of
usable responses received was 203 responses from Dubai Financial Market and 140
responses from Abu Dhabi Securities Market.
3.4. Reliability of the Measures
Reliability of the measures was assessed with the use of Cronbach’s alpha.
Cronbach’s alpha allows us to measure the reliability of the different categories. It
consists of estimates of how much variation in scores of different variables is
attributable to chance or random errors (Selltzm, et al., 1976). As a general rule a
coefficient greater than or equal to 0.5 is considered acceptable and a good indication
of construct reliability ( Nunnally,1976). The overall Cronbach’s alpha for the five
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categories is (0.824). The Cronbach’s alpha for the five categories, namely, self-
image/ firm-image coincidence, accounting information, neutral information,
advocate recommendation and personal financial needs is (0.778), (0.790), (0.651),
(0.610), (0.640) respectively. Cronbach’s alpha show that these categories are
reliable.
4. Results
Table 2, provides the means and the standard deviations of the five groups of
the factors influencing the UAE investors behavior. All the calculated means for the
Table 2
Means and Standard Deviation of the Five Groups of the Factors Influencing the
UAE Investors Behavior
1.Self-Image/Firm-Image Coincidence
1. Relegious reasons
2. Feelings for a firm’s products and services
3. Reputation of the firm’s shareholders
4. “Get rich quick”
5. Firm status in industry
6. The creation of the organized financial
markets( i.e. Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Markets)
7. Perceived ethics of firm
8. Gut feeling on the economy
9. Reputation of the firm
10.Increase of the firm’s involvement in solving community problems
Mean 5.5085
Std. Deviation .8548
2.Accounting Information
11. Stock Marketability
12. Expected corporate earnings
13.Condition of financial statements 14. Dividends paid
15. Affordable share price
16. Expected Dividends
17. Past performance of the firm’s stock
Mean 4.4067
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Std. Deviation 1.1832
3.Neutral Information
18. Government holdings
19. Information obtained from the internet 20. Fluctuation/developments in the stock index 21. Coverage in the press
22. Statements from government officals
23. Current economic indicators 24. Recent price movement in a firm’s stock
Mean 5.9821
Std. Deviation .9180
4.Advocate Recommendation
25. Broker recommendation 26.Family member opinions
27. Friend or coworker recommendations
28. Opinions of the firm’s majority stockholders
Mean 5.4731
Std. Deviation .7894
5.Personal Financial Needs
29. Attractiveness of non-stock investment
30. Diversification needs
31. Ease of obtaining borrowed funds
32. Minmizing risk
33. Expected Losses in international financial markets
34. Expected Losses in other local investments
Mean 4.2745
Std. Deviation .9703
five groups is greater than 4 out of the maximum answer, which is based on seven-
points Likert scale. The calculated means indicate a positive answer for the first
part of the five questions of this study. In other words all the 34 factors included in
the questionnaire are somehow affecting the UAE investor decisions. The most
important group was by order of importance: the neutral information, self-image/
firm-image coincidence, advocate recommendation, accounting information, and
personal financial needs. However, the calculated means do not give an answer to
the second part of the five questions, which is the most important part of this study,
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namely the relative importance of the effect of each factor on the behavior of the
UAE investor. The effect of each factor of the 34 factors will be examined bellow:
Table 3, shows the frequency distribution of variables that significantly
influence the UAE investor behavior. A more complete picture however, is presented
Table 3
Frequency Distribution of Variables that Significantly Influence the UAE Investor
Behavior
Item Frequency Percent
1. Expected corporate earnings
223 65%
2.“Get rich quick” 209 60.9%
3. Stock Marketability 185 53.9%
4. Past performance of the firm’s stock 181 52.6%
5. Government holdings 180 52.3%
6. The creation of the organized financial
markets( i.e. Dubai Financial Market& Abu Dhabi Securities Markets)
176 51.3 %
7. Dividends paid.
159 46.4%
8.Condition of financial statements
152 44.2%
9. Expected Dividends 152 44.2%
10. Current economic indicators
147 42.7%
11. Affordable share price
146 42.4%
12.Reputation of the firm
126 36.6%
13. Statements from government officals
132 38.5%
14. Recent price movement in a firm’s stock
122 35.5%
15. Perceived ethics of firm 100 29.1%
16. Ease of obtaining borrowed funds 95 27.6%
17. Reputation of the firm’s shareholders
93 27%
18. Firm status in industry
92 26.7%
19. Fluctuation/developments in the stock index
86 25%
20.Increase of the firm’s involvement in solving community problems
84 24.4%
21. Relegious reasons
80 23.3%
22. Feelings for a firm’s products and services
78 22.7%
23. Broker recommendations
60 11.3%
24. Coverage in the press
57 16.6% 25. Information obtained from the internet
42 12.2% 26. Opinions of the firm’s majority
stockholders 39 9.3%
27. Friend or coworker recommendations
33 9.6%
28. Attractiveness of non-stock investment 32 9.3%
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29. Diversification needs
32 9.3% 30. Gut feeling on the economy
31 9%
31.Family member opinions 29 8.4%
32. Expected losses in international financial
markets 28 8.1%
33. Minmizing risk
24 7%
34. Expected losses in other local investments 18
5.2%
in Table 4, which shows the same data sorted according to those factors that have
the least influence on the UAE investor behavior. It can be seen from Table 4 that
most of the variables that were rated important are classical wealth maximization
criteria such as; the “ expected corporate earnings”, and “get rich quick”. This is
consistent with Merikas et. al.,(2003) findings. Under the wealth maximization
criteria, four factor, were also significantly affecting the UAE investor behavior,
namely past performance of the firm’s stock, dividends paid, condition of financial
statements, and expected dividends, these factors were ranked 4,7, 8, and 9
respectively.
Other factors were also significantly affected the UAE investors behavior, for
example the UAE investors are more interested in stock marketability. This would
affect the policies that to be followed by companies listed in the two financial
markets. For example, in order to increase their stock marketability, they need to
review frequently, the relationship between the price and demand on their stocks. If
the stock price is too high, this might make it difficult to sell, and one of the
policies can be adopted by companies to make it more marketable is a stock split.
Government holdings is also a significant factor of the UAE investor behavior,
where more than 50% of total respondents consider this factor, the most influencing
factor on their investment decision. It should be mentioned here that there are a
large number of shares of listed companies which are being held by the UAE
government. Finally, another factor which was sugested by respondents as the most
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influencing factor on the UAE investor behavior, is the creation of the organized
financial markets( i.e. Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Markets).
Around 51% of total respondents indicated that this factor was the most influencing
factor on their investment decision, which reflects the vital role of the
Table 4
Frequency Distribution of Variables that Least Influence the UAE Investor Behavior
Item Frequency Percent
1. Expected losses in other local investments
57 16.6 %
2.Family member opinions
38 11 %
3. Friend or coworker recommendations
33 9.6 %
4. Information obtained from the internet
29 8.4 %
5. Opinions of the firm’s majority stockholders 27 7.8 % 6. Attractiveness of non-stock investment 26 7.6 % 7. Ease of obtaining borrowed funds 25 7.3 % 8. Relegious reasons
20 5.8 %
9. Expected losses in international financial
markets 19 5.5 %
10.Increase of the firm’s involvement in
solving community problems 18 5.2 %
11. Minmizing risk
18 5.2 %
12. Gut feeling on the economy
18 5.2 % 13. Broker recommendations
16 4.7 %
14. Diversification needs
15 4.4 %
15. Affordable share price
8 2.3 % 16. Coverage in the press
7 2.2 %
17. Expected Dividends 6 1.7 % 18. Statements from government officals
6 1.7 % 19. Government holdings 5 1.5 % 20. The creation of the organized financial
markets( i.e. Dubai Financial Market& Abu
Dhabi Securities Markets)
5 1.5 %
21. Perceived ethics of firm 5 1.5 % 22. Current economic indicators
4 1.2 %
23. Reputation of the firm’s shareholders 4 1.2 % 24. Firm status in industry
4 1.2 % 25. Stock Marketability 4 1.2 % 26. Recent price movement in a firm’s stock
3 0.9%
27. Feelings for a firm’s products and services
3 0.9% 28. Past performance of the firm’s stock 2 0.6 % 29. Fluctuation/developments in the stock index
2 0.6 %
30. “Get rich quick 1 0.3 % 31. Reputation of the firm
1 0.3 %
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32. Expected corporate earnings
1 0.3 %
33.Condition of financial statements
1 0.3 %
34. Dividends paid 1 0.3 %
two financial markets. It should be mentioned here that, the UAE investors were not
familiar with the organized financial markets five years ago, in which both of the
two financial markets were established in 2000.
Some factors had unexpectedly least influence on the behavior of the UAE
investor behavior. For example, in the case of the religious reasons, only 80
respondents or 23% of total response consider this factor as the most influencing
factor on the UAE investors do not behavior. For the UAE society as a Moslem
society, and as it was mentioned before the religious reasons factor was expected to
be considered by a large number of respondents as the most influencing factor on
their investment decision. This is mainly because most the UAE investors don’t like
to invest their money in the conventional banks in order to avoid adding interest on
their investment which is forbidden from an Islamic point of view. The other
unexpected responses were those related to family member opinions, in which only
29 respondents or about 8% of total responses consider this factor as the most
influencing factor on the UAE investor behavior. The least influencing factors on the
behavior of the UAE investor were clearly presented in Table 4. It is iterested to
note that almost the same factors listed on the top of Table 3, became on the bottom
of Table 4.
Regarding the five groups of factors influencing the UAE investor behavior,
the most influencing factors were found belong accounting information group,
namely expected corporate earnings, stock marketability, past performance of the
firm’s stock, dividends paid, condition of financial statements and expected
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dividends. Clearly for companies listed in Dubai Financial Market& Abu Dhabi
Securities Markets, require to give more attention to these factors in order to satisfy
the desires of their investors and also to attract more investors to deal with their
stocks. The second group was self-image/ firm-image coincidence group in which
there were three factors influence the UAE investor behavior, namely get rich quick,
reputation of the firm and perceived ethics of firm. The third group was neutral
information, followed by advocate recommendation and the last group was
personal financial needs.
5. Summary and Conclusions
In this paper factors influencing the UAE investor behavior on Dubai
Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Market were examined. The paper
develops a modified questionnaire. The questionnaire included thirty four items that
belonge to five categories, namely self-image/ firm-image coincidence; accounting
information; neutral information; advocate recommendation; and personal financial
needs. Six factors were found the most influencing factors, where more than 50% of
total respondents consider these factors as the most affecting factors on their
behavior. The most influencing factor was by order of importance: expected
corporate earnings, get rich quick, stock marketability, past performance of the
firm’s stock, government holdings, the creation of the organized financial market(
i.e. Dubai Financial Market& Abu Dhabi Securities Markets). Five factors were
found the least influencing factors, where less than 10% of total respondents consider
these factors as the least affecting factors on their behavior. The least influencing
factor was by order of importance: expected losses in other local investments,
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minimizing risk, expected losses in international financial markets, , family member
opinions and gut feeling on the economy. The most influencing group was by order
of importance accounting information, self-image/ firm-image coincidence, neutral
information, advocate recommendation, and personal financial needs. Two factors
had unexpectedly least influence on the behavior of the UAE investor behavior,
namely the religious reasons and the factor of family member opinions.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank University of Sharjah for the research grant.
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