The Role of Digital Governance in Supporting Investment Decisions: The Mediating Effect of Accounting Disclosure A Field Study on Digital Brokerage Companies in Egypt

This study examines the mediating role of accounting disclosure in the relationship between digital governance and investment decision-making within digital brokerage companies operating in Egypt. Despite the rapid expansion of digital brokerage services, the current accounting model — shaped largely by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) requirements such as IAS 38 on intangible assets — struggles to accommodate the recognition, measurement, and disclosure needs created by digital investment activities. Using a structured questionnaire comprising 47 items distributed across six measurement dimensions, primary data were collected from a field sample of respondents (n ≈ 100–150) comprising current investors, prospective/hesitant users, and marketing and promotion personnel of Egyptian digital brokerage firms. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test three research hypotheses. The results indicate that: (1) the current accounting model exhibits significant deficiencies in providing the accounting disclosure required by digital governance for brokerage transactions; (2) the existing level of accounting disclosure is insufficient to adequately support the investment decision, which increases decision-making difficulty for this class of entities; and (3) digital governance exerts a significant positive effect on the investment decision, both directly and indirectly through accounting disclosure, confirming a significant partial mediation effect (indirect effect = 0.401, t = 7.482, p < 0.001). The study contributes to the accounting and governance literature by proposing an accounting disclosure framework tailored to the digital brokerage sector and offers practical implications for regulators, standard-setters, and company management.