An Empirical Study of ESG Factors Influencing Investment Behaviour of Retail Investors in emerging market

  • Unique Paper ID: 192534
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 9
  • PageNo: 1750-1754
  • Abstract:
  • The Non- financial parameters like Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) have become popular within the investment decision making process, especially with respect to the context of sustainable finance. As the investors are getting more and more aware about the environmental needs and societal expectations responsible investing is gaining grounds in market. While most of the research is done for developed markets low evidence is available for the emerging markets, hence the study focuses on how retail investors in emerging economies interpret and apply these non-financial parameters in practice. The paper studies whether ESG factors have any influence on investment decisions making process of retail investors. Primary data from 250 retail investors were collected through a structured questionnaire also inputs from fund managers were taken. Though the findings of the research indicates high level of awareness among the investors but financial parameters and returns continue to have significant dominance in the investment priorities. The governance and transparency dimensions had the most influential impact on the decision making whereas environmental and social factors had relatively lower influence. The study also highlights various barriers and concerns regarding the ESG investing such as weak regulatory structure, green washing, dependence on fund managers for investment decisions and limited product options. The study also shows the demographic distribution and their investment patterns to some extent. These findings highlight a notable gap between sustainability awareness and actual investment behaviour. The study contributes to the ESG literature by providing emerging market evidence and offers insights for fund managers and policymakers seeking to strengthen ESG investment frameworks in India.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{192534,
        author = {Ms. Mayuri Moreshwar Desle and Dr. Prashant Tryambak Patil},
        title = {An Empirical Study of ESG Factors Influencing Investment Behaviour of Retail Investors in emerging market},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {9},
        pages = {1750-1754},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=192534},
        abstract = {The Non- financial parameters like Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) have become popular within the investment decision making process, especially with respect to the context of sustainable finance. As the investors are getting more and more aware about the environmental needs and societal expectations responsible investing is gaining grounds in market. While most of the research is done for developed markets low evidence is available for the emerging markets, hence the study focuses on how retail investors in emerging economies interpret and apply these non-financial parameters in practice. The paper studies whether ESG factors have any influence on investment decisions making process of retail investors. Primary data from 250 retail investors were collected through a structured questionnaire also inputs from fund managers were taken. Though the findings of the research indicates high level of awareness among the investors but financial parameters and returns continue to have significant dominance in the investment priorities. The governance and transparency dimensions had the most influential impact on the decision making whereas environmental and social factors had relatively lower influence.
The study also highlights various barriers and concerns regarding the ESG investing such as weak regulatory structure, green washing, dependence on fund managers for investment decisions and limited product options. The study also shows the demographic distribution and their investment patterns to some extent. These findings highlight a notable gap between sustainability awareness and actual investment behaviour. The study contributes to the ESG literature by providing emerging market evidence and offers insights for fund managers and policymakers seeking to strengthen ESG investment frameworks in India.},
        keywords = {ESG investing, retail investors, investment behaviour, emerging markets, India, sustainable finance},
        month = {February},
        }

Cite This Article

Desle, M. M. M., & Patil, D. P. T. (2026). An Empirical Study of ESG Factors Influencing Investment Behaviour of Retail Investors in emerging market. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(9), 1750–1754.

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