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Aryan Hellas Limited IBRC Athens 2005 Copyright to © Aryan Hellas Limited 1 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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Aryan Hellas Limited

IBRC Athens 2005 Copyright to © Aryan Hellas Limited

1

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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the usefulness of audited financial information, Accounting Horizons, 17,37-48.

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