Corporate Social Responsibility as a Factor Influencing Investment Decisions of Individual Investors in Bangalore's IT Industry
摘要
Corporate Social Responsibility has surfaced as one of the critical determinants in investment decision-making processes. The present study adopts a prescriptive analysis to identify how CSR affects the investment decisions made by individual investors in Bangalore's IT sector. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach has been conducted by integrating primary data collected from surveys administered to 107 individual investors and acquiring secondary data from academic journals, corporate reports, and government publications. The results indicate that there exists a strong connection between CSR practices and investment preferences, since investors endorse companies that possess robust ESG practices. Moreover, the study utilizes path analysis to identify both direct and indirect relationships between CSR dimensions and the investment decisions. In other words, it can be stated from the findings that environmental sustainability and corporate governance have highest direct impacts on investment decisions, while ethical labor practices and community engagement influence indirectly through the impact they create on the corporate reputation. Therefore, the study provides strategic recommendations for IT companies in Bangalore to improve their CSR initiative in a manner that would attract more socially conscious investor base. Some of the recommendations include providing increased transparency for CSR, further incorporation of ESG factors into strategic planning, and promoting stakeholder engagement. More profoundly, the implications found through this research work suggest a future scope for policymakers, corporate managers, and investors in the effort to increase the importance of CSR in sustaining economic growth in the IT sector.