Drivers of Saving Decisions from a Consumers‘ behavioral Perspective: A Large-Scale Empirical Investigation

The authors investigate the savings behavior in an empirical study and define social context and attitudes towards saving as the main drivers. By applying a behavioral approach hypotheses are formulated in order to test the influence of the social context on the saving attitudes perceived anxiety, perceived importance and involvement. In addition, the authors research the impact of these attitudes on short and long-term saving. The inclusion of self-control and household income further helps to explain saving behavior. Both, social context constructs, social influence and relationship quality, exhibit a significant influence on all attitudes. Moreover all attitudes show a significant impact on short- and long-term saving. Thus, savings institution can influence the savings behavior by offering a high and trustworthy relationship quality. This in turn affects perceived anxiety, involvement and perceived importance which are the main drivers of saving as shown by the authors.