Yao Yi, Abdullah Al Mamun, Mohammad Enamul Hoque, Qing Yang
With growing concerns of environmental degradation and escalating socio-economic inequalities, investors shifting their investment the firms environmental and social priorities. Thus, attention toward investors SRI behavior has been increasing. Despite growing research, there remain significant gaps in understanding the underlying psychological and cognitive mechanisms for SRI intentions and decisions. Therefore, this study, grounded in social cognitive theory and addressing existing research gaps, investigates the influence of psychological and cognitive factors on individuals' intentions and actual behavior regarding socially responsible investment (SRI). In doing so, a structured questionnaire was administered face to face, garnering participation from 333 investors. The hypotheses and model have been evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The empirical findings indicate that investment literacy enhances perceived SRI performance but does not significantly influence SRI intention. Similarly, while perceived SRI performance positively affects attitudes toward SRI, it does not significantly predict SRI intention. Furthermore, perceived values related to sustainability positively impact both attitudes and intentions toward SRI. Attitude was found to be insignificant in predicting SRI intention, while perceived self-efficacy significantly affects SRI intention. Moreover, incidental guilt increases SRI intention but does not affect individuals' actual behavior. Climate distress significantly enhances both SRI intention and actual behavior. SRI intention was found to translate into SRI behavior. In the mediating process, perceived SRI performance mediates the relationship between investment literacy and attitudes toward SRI, but not between investment literacy and SRI intention. Moreover, attitude is also found to be insignificant in linking perceived SRI performance, perceived values on sustainability, and SRI intention. Furthermore, SRI intention mediates the relationships between actual behavior and perceived sustainability values, self-efficacy, incidental guilt, and climate distress. These findings suggest that financial education and awareness campaign should incorporate the emotional and ethical dimensions of investing. © 2025 The Authors
Department of Economics and Management, Fujian Forestry Vocational and Technical College, Fujian Province, Nanping City, 353000, China; UKM - Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor Darul Ehsan, UKM Bangi, 43600, Malaysia; Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60286, Indonesia; BRAC Business School, BRAC University, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh; Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Padang, Sumatera Barat, 25173, Indonesia
