Retail Investors’ Attitude towards Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) in India: Examining the Role of Religiosity and Moral Norms within TPB Framework

Abstract

This study studies the influence of retail investor’s perceptions towards Socially Responsible funds. The theory of planned behaviour has been adopted by including religiosity and moral norms.  The data has been collected from 409 respondents from India. The measurement instruments demonstrated sound psychometric properties and data were considered appropriate for further analysis. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis. The results of regression indicate that all TPB antecedents (attitude, social norms and perceived behavioural control) were significant in predicting purchase intention of SRI funds in India. However, based on their beta weights, attitude and social norms were deemed most important factors within the TPB framework. Both religiosity and Moral norms were also significant predictors of purchase intention, but the role of moral norms were found more important between the two. Implications of the study have been discussed in the paper.