Is there Swissness in Investment Decision Behavior and Investment Competence?

Based on a large international survey we analyze how German- French- and Italian-speaking Swiss differ in their investment decision behavior and investment competence as compared to their closest neighbors abroad speaking the same language. Although language may be closer to the individual self than the country of residence, we find that there are greater similarities in the decision behavior of Swiss speaking different languages than between Swiss and their linguistically closest neighbors abroad. These similarities hold also for the emotional investment competence and to some extend also for the knowledge-based competence. We conclude that there is Swissness in the decision behavior as well as in the emotional investment competence. The latter is associated with regional differences in the relationship to investment advisors