Moderating Effect of Culture on the Relationship between Social Interaction and Stock Market Participation among Secondary School Teachers from Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Culture makes individuals to behave the same way in similar situations because of the values and norms grounded in a person. This means that the overall behavior of individual investors is therefore guided by their individual culture. Culture could influence the behavior of individual investors directly and this study sought to investigate how culture could interact with social interaction in influencing individual investor stock market participation. There was need therefore to investigate the moderating effects of investment culture on the relationship between social interaction and stock market participation of secondary school teachers in Nakuru County. The study employed cross sectional survey research design. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires from a sample of 320 teachers' selected using stratified proportionate random sampling technique. The study concludes that investment culture has a positive significant moderating effect on the relationship between social interaction and stock market participation decision (R2 change was 0.04, p<0.05). This implies that investment culture interacts with social interaction thereby significantly enhancing its relationship with stock market participation of secondary school teachers in Nakuru County.