Open Access

Carolin Sophie Zimmermann

• The aim of this research is to provide a holistic overview of the influences on the intention to invest in the context of behavioral finance. For this purpose, a model was created in which the effects of the theory of planned behavior, financial risk propen-sity, and the self-determination theory on the intention to invest were examined. With the help of nine hypotheses, the significance of the relations within the model, as well as a mediation effect were analyzed. In order to test these hypotheses, a quantitative survey querying the above-mentioned possible factors and further questions about the participants' investment behavior was created and sent to all students at Furtwangen University. Results showed that all relations within the model were significant and that especially attitudes and financial risk propensity had a pronounced influence on the intention to invest. However, several variables for self-determination theory had to be eliminated to guarantee validity and reliability of the model. The findings of this study enable financial institutions, such as banks, to actively influence and en-courage customers to invest or to purposefully develop new investment products to gain additional customers.