Determinantal Factors Eliciting the Intention of Impact Investors Toward Investment in Social Enterprise: The Moderating Role of Trust

Abstract

The ‘Impact Investments market’ in India is expanding as a result of stakeholders’ focus over the last decade, but the growth has been slow due to investors’ reluctance to invest in social enterprises and the need for stimulation or motivation to push them towards financing social enterprises. The purpose of this study is to identify the drivers of the Intention of Impact investors to invest in social enterprises. A standardised questionnaire was used to survey 327 impact investors. The results indicate that all the examined factors (Social Entrepreneur’s Attributes, Social Consciousness of the impact investor, Goal Congruency between the Impact Investor and the Social Enterprise and perceived risk) have a notable impact on the intention of impact investors to invest in social enterprises. The research also deduces that attitude plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between the identified factors and the intention to invest in social enterprise. Additionally, this study also investigates trust in social enterprises as a moderating variable in the relationship between attitude and investment intention. While a statistically significant interaction was found, the effect was modest, indicating that trust plays a supportive but not dominant role in this relationship. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.