Retail Investors’ Perception Towards Green Bonds in Advancing Sustainability: Evidence from India

Abstract

Green bonds are financial instruments that raise funds for financing green projects. They facilitate sustainable investing with the goal to mitigate environmental damage. The presents study understands the factors that impact the perception of retail investor towards investing in green bonds. Also, it studies: is there any significant relationship between perceptions of retail investors towards investment in GBs and sustainability?” Furthermore, we conducted a mediation analysis to assess the role of "perception towards green bond investment" in advancing sustainability objectives. Exploratory factor analysis has been used to understand the important factors. Also, the study uses the PLS-SEM for testing the path analysis while performing structural model testing. The results show that social factors are the most significant factors followed by personal factors. Environmental factors comes next with financial gains as the fourth important factor that impact the perception of green bond investors in India. Risk associated with investment is given the least priority. The study will helps the fund managers, brokers, companies and policymakers to understand the perceptions of retail investors towards GBs. It will provide insight to the policymakers to incorporate the policy changes regarding the issue of green bonds in the country.