Determinants of social behaviour to improve perceived welfare among citizens of UAE – The moderation effect of government social responsibility

The United Arab Emirates is the first country in the world that have a separated and dedicated ministry for the happiness and welfare of its nationals. However, the rank of the United Arab Emirates in the happiness index of the United Nations is 21, the UAE's rank in 2013 was 14 which is much better than the current rank. This situation of declining happiness motivates the researcher to conduct research on the issue. The problem of the declining happiness index instigated the researcher to conduct research on perceived welfare among United Arab Emirates citizens. Upon reviewing the literature, it has been observed that social awareness, health awareness, social identity, self-identity, self-esteem, and subjective norms are the major reason, furthermore, citizen social behaviour has also been found to be low because of the mentioned factors. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to explore the impact of social awareness, health awareness, self-identity, self-esteem, social identity, and subjective norms, on citizens’ perceived welfare in the United Arab Emirates. Along with that the impact of social awareness, health awareness, self-identity, self-esteem, social identity, and subjective norms, on citizens’ social behaviour. This study has six independent variables, one dependent variable, and one outcome variable along with one moderating variable. For meeting the objectives of the study, the theoretical framework is developed using four theories which are Social Identity Theory, Self- Congruity Theory and Identity Theory, Theory of Planned Behaviour, and social intelligence theory. This study has been conducted using the adopted questionnaires and the hypothesis has been tested using structural equation modelling. The responses were collected from a sample of 384 citizens using systematic sampling as the samples were chosen from three main populated cities, the sample size at every city is based on the population density. The data collection method is direct collection via the researcher team using a printed survey in addition to an online survey. The findings of the study supported ten direct hypotheses and one moderating hypothesis whereas three hypotheses have been rejected. Furthermore, the study proceeds with the discussion and similarities of the findings with prior literature and ended with limitations and suggestions for future researchers in the same field.