Perceived Investor Protection in Ghana's Equity Crowdfunding Market (Science Mundi)

Summary

• A quantitative cross-sectional survey collected data from 323 retail investors and prospective investors in Ghana.p.1
• The structural model explained 58.1% of the total variance in perceived investor protection.p.1
• Perceived regulatory frameworks had a direct positive association with perceived investor protection of β = .247.p.1
• Institutional trust mediated the association with an indirect effect of β = .315, accounting for 56.1% of the total association.p.1
• High awareness of the regulatory rules was recorded, with 83.0% of respondents reporting awareness of the SEC Guidelines.p.6
• The survey demographic was predominantly male at 74.9%, with 88.2% holding at least a bachelor's degree.p.6

Key insights

1. Perceived regulatory frameworks demonstrated a statistically significant direct association with perceived investor protection at β = .247.p.1
2. Institutional trust carried the main indirect relationship in the model with a coefficient of β = .315.p.1
3. The theoretical model accounted for 58.1% of the total variance observed in perceived investor protection.p.1
4. Platform governance significantly strengthened the path from regulatory frameworks to institutional trust with β = .094.p.9
5. The interaction between institutional trust and platform governance on perceived investor protection was not statistically significant at β = .083.p.9
6. The Securities and Exchange Commission Ghana published the Securities Industry (Crowdfunding) Guidelines on 7 March 2024.p.2
7. The conditional indirect association of regulation on perceived protection rose from .283 at low platform governance to .347 at high governance.p.9
8. The survey sample comprised 74.9% male respondents and 77.7% individuals aged between 18 and 39 years.p.6