Title: Individual investors' perceptions towards dividends: the case of Greece

Authors: Dimitrios I. Maditinos, Zeljko Sevic, Nikolaos G. Theriou, Alexandra V. Tsinani

Addresses: Technological Educational Institute of Kavala Business School, Agios Loukas, 654 04 Kavala, Greece. ' The University of Greenwich Business School, Old Royal Naval College, 30 Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, England, UK. ' Technological Educational Institute of Kavala Business School, Agios Loukas, 654 04 Kavala, Greece. ' Technological Educational Institute of Kavala Business School, Agios Loukas, 654 04 Kavala, Greece

Abstract: This study is based on the assumption that there exists a strong preference for dividends among individual investors in Greece. Its main objective is to explore the driving forces that lead retail investors to reveal their preference for either cash or stock dividends. Several of the most important dividend theories were employed to test the behaviour of Greek individual investors towards dividends. The results reveal strong evidence that individual investors in Greece want dividends. Their answers provide strong support for the signalling theory of Bhattacharya (1979), while the behavioural finance theory of Shefrin and Statman (1984) is marginally confirmed.

Keywords: cash dividends; stock dividends; individual investors; dividend theories; behavioural finance; Greek tax system; questionnaire survey; Greece; individual preferences; signalling theory; investor perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2007.016023

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, 2007 Vol.1 No.1, pp.18 - 31

Published online: 02 Dec 2007 *

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