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Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents for intention to use

FinTech services

Article  in  International Journal of Economics and Business Research · January 2021

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2021.113152

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254 Int. J. Economics and Business Research, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2021

Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents

for intention to use FinTech services

Shubhangi Singh*
Amity Business School,
Noida, India – 201301, India
Email: shubhangi.singh@hotmail.com
*Corresponding author

Marshal M. Sahni
Strategy and Marketing,
Amity University, Noida – 201301, India
Email: msahni@amity.edu

Raj K. Kovid
School of Business Studies,
Sharda University,
Noida – 201310, India
Email: kovidrk@gmail.com

Abstract: FinTech is an emerging paradigm in financial services industry

which is becoming the additional source of revenue generation not only for
banking companies but also for telecommunication and retail companies.
Despite the numerous benefits of FinTech, its acceptance with users is not as
per the industry expectations. This can be attributed to various factors such as
lack of trust or responsiveness in available FinTech services. The objective of
our research is to explore the antecedents of intention to use namely, perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived trust and responsiveness.
These factors were empirically assessed by survey of 439 FinTech users.
Exploratory factor analysis was done to extract relevant factors. Structural
equation modelling was done to examine model fit and hypotheses testing. The
analysis shows that usefulness and ease of use have direct effect on intention to
use. Trust and responsiveness have indirect effect on intention to use and is
mediated by usefulness and ease of use.

Keywords: perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use; FinTech; TAM;

technology acceptance model; intention to use; trust; responsiveness.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Singh, S., Sahni, M.M. and
Kovid, R.K. (2021) ‘Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents for
intention to use FinTech services’, Int. J. Economics and Business Research,
Vol. 21, No. 2, pp.254–268.

Biographical notes: Shubhangi Singh is pursuing PhD in Management from

Amity Business School, India. Her main research interests are in technology
adoption, financial services, FinTech and banking services.

Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents 255

Marshal M. Sahni is Professor, Strategy & Marketing in Amity University,

India. His research interests are in digital media, brand communication and
interactive media.

Raj K. Kovid is Professor in School of Business Studies, Sharda University,

India. His research interests are in firm’s performance, related party
transactions and regulatory framework.

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled

‘Exploring antecedents of FinTech adoption – a multi-method evaluation using
adapted TAM’ presented at International Conference on Business
Transformation through Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Digitization –
2019, IMS Gaziabad, Management Department, 9 November, 2019.

1 Introduction

Multiple Innovative technologies and their ubiquity are bringing a paradigm change in
the present financial service industry which is witnessing a disruptive structural change.
Financial technology (FinTech) is understood as a technological innovation that is
challenging the traditional banking and financial companies (World Economic Forum,
2015). Consumers are drifting away from conventional payment methods to Fintech
services as they offer an enhanced and efficient client experience and thus, constant
innovations make FinTech an important dimension of financial services industry.
Although, there is growth in number of FinTech users, there is no conclusive research
findings which determine antecedents affecting usefulness and intention to use FinTech
services. However, both academic researches and global evidence support that FinTech
services provide increased personalisation, flexibility and ease of delivery of financial
services (PWC, 2017), which in turn lead to higher productivity, profitability and reach of
financial services (EY Fintech Adoption Index, 2016). Fintech services have improved
efficiency, reduced risk, and contributed to inclusive growth (Subbarao, 2017). These
technological innovations have the potential to substantially influence traditional business
models of highly regulated financial services industry (Leong et al., 2017).
However, we see selective adoption of FinTech services. To put things in perspective,
at present, though, there are numerous FinTech services available, yet only few of them
have been proven successful. Existing studies indicate that customers’ reluctant is
attributed to lack of stability and reliability of service providers and confidence in online
system (Paul and McDaniel, 2004; Ratnasingham, 1998; Min and Galle, 1999; Lee and
Turban, 2001; Dhiman et al., 2018). Also, users believe Fintech services to be more
uncertain than traditional channels. This contribute to the unwillingness of customers to
try FinTech as they lack confidence in available service and their providers. Customer
trust is important for success of FinTech services. Willingness of potential users to use
technological innovation and trust in services largely determines success and large-scale
adoption of any technology (Rogers, 1983). Intention to use is the necessary precursor
and is thus, adopted as measure of performance for technology products or services.
Previous researchers investigate intention to use FinTech through acceptance of
technology. Most of the existing literature on technology acceptance uses the most tested
and established model, the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1986; Davis
256 S. Singh et al.

et al., 1989). It states that perception of ease of use and usefulness of technology predicts
intention, attitude and subsequent acceptance and use of technology (Davis, 1986).
TAM 2 (a revision of TAM) (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) and Unified Theory of
Technology Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003) are
also other popular TAMs. TAM and UTAUT models are adapted from theory of reasoned
action (TRA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen,
1985, 1991) and thus, share several features with them. Some studies have also noticed
its link with theory of diffusion of innovation (Rogers, 1983). The TAM model (Davis,
1989) is proposed based on these variables using perceived ease of use (PEU) and
perceived usefulness (PU), factors assessed through a few short questions. It proposed
that attitude helps in evaluating intention to perform a behaviour thereby resulting in use
of innovation.
In many studies, additional variables have been introduced to increase the predictive
power of TAM variables. Research suggests that trust and responsiveness also
significantly influence acceptance of technology (Cronin and Taylor, 1992, Venkatesh
and Davis, 1996; Barnes and Vidgen, 2002). For FinTech service providers the pertinent
question is: what attributes enhanced consumer perceptions that makes FinTech services
easy, useful, trustworthy and responsive? This study examines intention to use FinTech
from technology acceptance perspective adding constructs for trust and responsiveness as
additional factors. Also, this study investigates trust and responsiveness as antecedents of
usefulness and ease of use of FinTech services through a comprehensive framework
weaving sub-constructs of service quality. In Section 2, review of literature is presented
on intention to use technology adoption explaining various factors affecting it. Based on
this review, the study explores antecedents of usefulness and ease of use affecting
intention to use FinTech and formulate associated research hypothesis. Research
methodology is discussed in Sections 3 and 4 discusses the research findings from the
analysis of empirical data. Section 5 concludes the paper with discussion, limitation of
the study, managerial implications and future research directions.
The conclusions generated by this study will be useful in many ways. First, it adds to
the technology acceptance literature by incorporating relevant adoption beliefs by
investigating the antecedents of FinTech intention to use. Second, a thorough
investigation of the impact of user reaction to intention to use FinTech would help
FinTech providers learn to entice users for frequent use and attract non-users to do their
first online financial transaction through them. Lastly, exploring attributes influencing
user belief will pave way to improve FinTech services for continuous usage.

2 Review of literature and proposed hypotheses

The literature review is done segregating the themes in three broad categories: first,
explanation of FinTech, second, constructs as per TAM model are discussed and lastly,
ancillary constructs added to the modified TAM model are discussed.

2.1 FinTech
FinTech denotes technological innovation having a bearing on financial services
(RBI Report, 2001). The Fintech is categorised in six broad categories: payment and
clearing settlement; deposits, lending and capital raising, market provisioning, investment
 Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents 257

management, data analytics and risk management (World Economic Forum, 2015).
The innovations in these categories are going to impact financial services businesses in a
big way. Therefore, at present, it can be witnessed that FinTech is not limited to financial
sector but has expanded to retail groups and telecom operators as well (RBI, 2017). These
new stakeholders are providing financial services through their existing networks and in
innovative way.
These rapid developments of financial system and institutions can be attributed to
development of FinTech. It has made use of financial services convenient by doing
technological advancement in fundamental services and building new applications for
delivery such as making payments, saving, borrowing, managing risk and seeking
financial advice (He et al., 2017). With digital transformations in other industries as well,
there is an increased demand of technology based financial solutions by consumers (Saal
et al., 2017). FinTech companies are meeting these consumer demands with convenient
and less costly ways to transfer, borrow or invest money (Manyika et al., 2016; Morgan,
2017).
Financial service providers need to update their strategies to remain relevant and
profitable, as there are numerous technological advancement and innovations in financial
services in recent years influencing the behaviour of the consumer. Therefore, all the
financial services accessed through any digital media platform such as internet banking,
mobile banking, payment wallet, online share trading, algorithm trading, cryptocurrency
and crowd funding are considered for the study.

2.2 TAM constructs

With the number of FinTech service providers existing in market who are offering and
improving FinTech services, it is imperative to study the factors affecting intention to use
for these services. For this study, TAM (Davis, 1986; Davis et al., 1989) provides
conceptual framework and discusses TAM to investigate antecedents of usefulness
affecting intention to use. TAM proposes that two belief variables i.e., perceived
usefulness and PEU determine user intention for technology product or service. TAM is
validated by various studies as a robust framework to understand intention to use
technology in varied contexts, such as banking technology, m-commerce, email, online
games, lotus notes, desktop video conferencing, telemedicine and so on. Since FinTech is
retail format of innovation, TAM provides framework for this study to investigate
antecedents of usefulness affecting intention to use FinTech.

2.2.1 Intention to use FinTech

With the advent of FinTech and its integration with brick and mortar financial services
industry, intention to use has become an important dimension to indicate the possibility
of use and adoption of FinTech services by the users (Fenga et al., 2013). Pace of
technological advancement in financial services, vis-à-vis level of consumer awareness
has significant influence on a person’s intention to use FinTech services. Also, the
technology advancement is at a higher rate than consumer awareness and use, then
FinTech companies may not be able to reap the benefits of the innovation or the gestation
time to earn profits will increase for them (Abbasi and Weigand, 2017). Hence, intention
258 S. Singh et al.

to use technology has gained researchers’ attention and several theories and models have
been proposed to study behaviour intention to use (Slade et al., 2015).
Various studies have identified that intention to use is influenced by many factors.
Behaviour intention was assessed through behavioural and technological factors with two
main constructs – ease of use and usefulness (Davis et al., 1989). Accessibility of
technology, information about its utility and usage, and then the direct experience of
usage of technology enable users to form stable behaviour intention for continued use in
future (Kaba and Touré, 2014). Other factors like performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, social influences and facilitating conditions are important factors which
influence intention to use (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Gupta et al., 2019). Intention to use
was also assessed through behavioural and technological factors with two main
constructs – ease of use and usefulness (Davis et al., 1989).

2.2.2 Perceived usefulness

According to TAM, perceived usefulness is the degree to which one believes that using
the technology will enhance his/her performance (Davis et al., 1989). There are many
studies proving the significant impact of perceived usefulness on intention to use (Davis
et al., 1989; Venkatesh et al., 2003; Venkatesh and Davis, 1996). Perceived usefulness is
crucial construct in determining adoption of technology (Venkatesh and Morris, 2000;
Chen and Barnes, 2007). Because of ubiquity of FinTech services coupled with
convenience, higher the perceived usefulness, higher is intention to use FinTech services.
Therefore, it is hypothesised that:
H1: Perceived usefulness positively effect intention to use FinTech services.

2.2.3 Perceived ease of use

Perceived ease of use is the degree to which one believes that using the technology will
be free of effort (Davis et al., 1989). It is further defined as the extent of effort a
technology needs to make it easy to use (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Also, TAM further
asserts that PEU is the key factor explaining the variance in perceived usefulness. It is
posited that ease of use has a positive and direct effect on intention to use technology
services (Venkatesh and Davis, 1996, 2000). It is also found that PEU enhances the
prediction of use of technology services including internet banking (Gounaris and
Koritos, 2008). As there are numerous variants of FinTech services, it can be tested that
degree of ease of use will affect intention to use as well as perceived usefulness. Based
on previous literature and considering this as one of the major behavioural factors
affecting intention to use and usefulness, it is posited that:
H2: Perceived ease of use positively effect intention to use FinTech services.
H3: Perceived ease of use positively effect perceived usefulness of FinTech services.

2.3 Ancillary constructs

Service quality constructs are incorporated in existing TAM model to explore antecedents
for intention to use FinTech services. Thus, trust and responsiveness from service quality
measure (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) are added as antecedents in the study.
 Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents 259

2.3.1 Perceived trust

Trust is a psychological perception that a service provider will consider the benefit of its
users and act benevolently (Bradach and Eccles, 1989; Rousseau et al., 1998; Bunduchi,
2005). One key reason for not doing online financial transactions by users regardless of
being internet users is because of the belief about safety of the transactions (Gefen and
Straub, 2003). Security of online transactions as well as reputation of the service provider
are the key factors influencing belief about trust while doing financial transactions
(Pavlou, 2003). Trust is a recurring phenomenon for interpersonal relationships. With the
growth in internet, many studies are conducted on the concept of trust (Ba and Pavlou,
2002; Bhattacherjee, 2002; Gefen et al., 2003; Pauleen, 2003; Piccoli and Ives, 2003;
Pavlou and Gefen, 2004). As compared with brick-and-mortar financial services
providers, trust perception on the service and company is more critical while doing online
financial transactions (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000; Grewal et al., 2004) as it lacks
control on transactions after initiation. Because of absence of face-face interaction while
using FinTech services, users feel a greater risk and uncertainty. Building trust is the
most effective tool for reducing this risk and uncertainty (Suh and Han, 2002; Pavlou,
2003) and is critical for success of FinTech. Many prior empirical studies included trust
as factor into TAM (Gerrard et al., 2006; Sujana, 2008). Results show trust to be an
antecedent of usefulness (Pavlou, 2003; Dahlberg et al., 2003). As trust is based on
pro-longed experience giving a sense of familiarity and directly impacting ease of use of
the services (Siau and Shen, 2003). Considering its effectiveness in explaining various
belief behaviour, it is hypothesised that:
H4: Perceived trust positively effect perceived usefulness of FinTech services.
H5: Perceived trust positively effect perceived ease of use of FinTech services.

2.3.2 Responsiveness
Responsiveness refers to user perception of the effectiveness and excellence of service
offered online. It refers to the accuracy of the services delivered and clear, current and
complete information available on the website. It is largely affected by website or
interface performance about prompt service and assistance provided while doing financial
transactions. Buyer perceptions about nature of interaction with the service provider is
largely affected by responsiveness. It also helps customer in absence of awareness of
technology use or any unforeseen event which requires effective information. Thus,
effective communication is the key factor determining the perceived quality of the online
service and thus, responsiveness is also a major element of service quality (Parasuraman
et al., 1985; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). It influenced user assessment for perceived
usefulness and ease of use of the technology and indirectly affects the user adoption
(Gefen, 2000). It has been empirically shown to have a significant impact on quality of
service and the second strongest predictor of behaviour intention and attitude towards an
online interface (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003). Enhanced responsiveness at the time of
crisis or problem also increases the trust on services. Considering its effectiveness in
predicting ease of use and usefulness, it is posited that:
H6: Responsiveness positively effect perceived usefulness of FinTech services
H7: Responsiveness positively effect perceived ease of use of FinTech services.
260 S. Singh et al.

3 Method

3.1 Stage I: instrument development

To validate the research hypotheses, the items for trust and responsiveness were
incorporated from existing adoption services for e-services (Cronin and Taylor, 1992;
Venkatesh et al., 2003). The items for the constructs were formed to capture the user
perception.
The survey instrument was categorised in three broad dimensions:
• intention to use FinTech services
• belief variables for usefulness, ease of use, trust and responsiveness
• demographic information.
All variables expect for demographic information were assessed on 5-point Likert scale
(5 = strongly agree and 1 = strongly disagree). Davis (1986), Davis et al. (1989) scale for
TAM was used to measure usefulness with four items, ease of use with six items. Trust
and responsiveness were measured through five items and three items respectively from
from ServPerf (Cronin and Taylor, 1992).
Dependent variable intention to use was measured with two items as intention to use
is not a latent concept but more of a monolithic judgement variable with measurement
reliability (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000; Gefen et al., 2003; Pavlou, 2003).

3.2 Stage II: data collection and statistical analysis

A pre-test of the instrument was conducted with domain experts from industry and
academia to validate the reliability of items of the proposed survey instrument. The items
with semantic ambiguities were modified or reworded. Thereafter, 850 users were invited
for online survey through electronic distribution of survey questions them. The target
respondents were customers of leading public and private sector banks, academicians,
staff and post-graduate students of private universities in Mumbai and Delhi. A
combination of convenient and random sampling method was used, as it is difficult to
obtain the sampling frame containing the details of all FinTech users. The universities
and banks are conveniently selected, and users were randomly chosen for invite. A total
of 443 responses received which is a response rate of 52.1%. Four responses were
dropped from for data analysis because of the non-usage of any FinTech service. 439
responses were used for further analysis.

4 Result

SPSS 24.0 was used to obtain descriptive statistics and for factor analysis. Amos 21.0
was used for hypotheses testing and structural model results. A two-step analysis
approach was adopted by doing separate validation for measurement model and structural
model. This ensure item and construct reliability and compensate for any theoretical
weakness (Hair et al., 1995). As intention to use is not a latent construct but is considered
as dependent variable, two step analysis avoid the interaction of measurement model and
structural model. This ensures the reliability of intention to use variable.
 Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents 261

4.1 Sample characteristics

Forty-eight percentage of the respondents were between the age group of 30–50 years,
incidentally the major user group for FinTech services (EY Report, 2016). 148
respondents (33.7%) of the respondents were below 30 years of age. Approximately 70%
of the respondents were male, and 30% were female. All respondents have used at least
one of the FinTech service in last one month of response.

4.2 Measurement model result

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of 20 measure for intention to use FinTech was
conducted with maximum likelihood extraction to further conduct confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA). Oblique rotation method (promax) was used presuming the correlation
among constructs. One items for construct ease of use were omitted from further analysis
because of poor psychometric properties and significant cross loadings. Reliability of the
measurement model was tested through Cronbach’s Alpha (Sharma and Gupta, 2020).
EFA extracted 18 items under four constructs (Table 1). These factors accounted for total
explained variance of 69.31% which is as per the acceptable standards (Jhamb and Gupta,
2016; Hair et al., 2011).

Table 1 Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis

EFA CFA
Std
factor Construct
Factor/items Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 Factor4 loading reliability AVE
Factor 1: Perceived usefulness 0.893 0.676
Useful in daily life 0.510 0.186 0.020 0.175 0.81
Increases financial 0.730 –0.085 0.049 0.091 0.76
independence
Helps to do tasks 0.871 0.053 –0.026 –0.011 0.87
more quickly
Increases productivity 0.892 0.020 –0.027 –0.050 0.84
Factor 2: Perceived ease of use 0.921 0.661
Easy to learn –0.131 0.907 –0.115 0.165 0.85
Easy to browse –0.042 0.909 0.062 –0.108 0.84
Ease to use 0.020 0.881 –0.054 –0.004 0.86
Create positive 0.172 0.662 0.084 –0.079 0.77
experience
Create clear and 0.003 0.689 0.045 0.085 0.78
comprehensible
interaction
Easy to become 0.077 0.716 0.063 –0.035 0.77
skilful for usage
262 S. Singh et al.

Table 1 Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (continued)

EFA CFA
Std
factor Construct
Factor/items Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 Factor4 loading reliability AVE
Factor 3: Responsiveness 0.864 0.864
Inform time of 0.072 0.075 0.720 –0.024 0.82
completion of
transaction
Gives prompt service –0.061 –0.019 0.982 0.013 0.89
as promised
Helps the customer at 0.013 –0.011 0.597 –0.184 0.76
the time of problem or
issue
Factor 4: Perceived trust 0.928 0.720
Trustworthy 0.069 0.130 0.066 0.664 0.78
Safe while doing 0.062 –0.001 0.025 0.814 0.89
transactions
Has good reputation 0.088 0.127 –0.074 0.684 0.81
Reliable to complete –0.038 –0.066 0.006 0.939 0.89
transaction
Safety of personal –0.060 –0.043 0.067 0.859 0.87
information
Eigen value 9.985 1.649 1.014 1.006
Variance % 53.567 7.714 4.591 3.978
Cronbach alpha 0.890 0.923 0.858 0.922

CFA was done using AMOS 21.0 to confirm the measurement model on the remaining
items after EFA. One item from construct ease of use was again removed from the final
scale due to large standardised residual. The final set of 18 items exhibit construct
reliabilities, average variance extracted (AVE) and Cronbach’s Alpha exceeding the
threshold for reliability and unidimensional properties (Aggarwal et al., 2019) (Table 2).
The goodness of fit statistics is: χ2(127) =373.253, CMIN = 2.939, CFI = 0.960,
GFI = 0.913, AGFI = 0.882, SRMR = 0.0426, RMSEA = 0.067.

Table 2 Discriminant validity and internal consistency

Trust Useful Ease of use Responsiveness

Trust 0.849
Useful 0.733 0.822
Ease of use 0.671 0.757 0.813
Responsiveness 0.718 0.656 0.595 0.824
The numbers in the diagonal is AVE of each construct. Numbers below diagonal are
squared correlation coefficients between constructs.
 Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents 263

4.3 Structural model results

The structural model proposed in this study was tested through maximum likelihood
method with AMOS 21(Sood et al., 2019; Aggarwal et al., 2018). The result shows an
acceptable fit for the proposed model with χ2(143) =421.854, CMIN = 2.950,
CFI = 0.958, GFI = 0.905, AGFI = 0.874, SRMR = 0.0419, RMSEA = 0.067. Hypotheses
test support all postulated paths (see Figure 1 for standardised path coefficients and
significance level).

Figure 1 Research model for antecedent of intention to use. Χ2(209) = 421.854, CMIN = 2.950,
CFI = 0.958, GFI = 0.905, AGFI = 0.874, SRMR = 0.0419, RMSEA = 0.067,
PCLOSE = 0.077

Hypothesis 1 examine the effect of perceived usefulness on intention to use. Perceived

usefulness has significant positive impact on intention to use (γ = 0.60, CR = 10.480)
FinTech services. So, hypotheses 1 is supported.
Hypothesis 2a and 2b examine the effect of PEU on perceived usefulness and
intention to use FinTech. Perceived ease of use has significant positive effect on
perceived usefulness (γ = 0.43, CR = 8.352) as well as on intention to use (γ = 0.26,
CR = 4.725) supporting both the hypotheses.
Hypotheses 3a and 3b examine the effect of perceived trust on perceived usefulness
and PEU. Perceived trust has significant positive influence on both perceive usefulness
(γ = 0.35, CR = 5.946) and PEU (γ = 0.51, CR = 7.895), supporting both the hypotheses.
Hypotheses 4a and 4b examine the effect of responsive on perceived usefulness and
PEU and the result show a significant positive influence on both perceived (γ = 0.16,
CR = 2.902) and PEU (γ = 0.23, CR = 3.560), supporting both the hypotheses.
Hypotheses results support all the proposed hypotheses and test results explained
66% variance in intention to use for FinTech services. Perceived ease of use, perceived
trust and responsiveness explained 70% variance in perceived usefulness. 48% variance
is explained in PEU is explained through two antecedents namely responsiveness and
perceived trust (Table 3).
264 S. Singh et al.

Table 3 Standardised estimates (hypothesised model)

Standardised Hypotheses
Hypothesis Hypothesised path estimate Z-value P-value support
H1 PU– Intention 0.60 10.480 *** Supported
H2 PEU – PU 0.43 8.352 *** Supported
H3 PEU – Intention 0.26 4.725 *** Supported
H4 Trust – PU 0.35 5.946 *** Supported
H5 Trust – PEU 0.51 7.895 *** Supported
H6 Res – PU 0.16 2.902 0.004 Supported
H7 Res – PEU 0.23 3.560 *** Supported
CMIN = 2.950, CFI = 0.958, GFI = 0.905, AGFI = 0.874, SRMR = 0.0419,
RMSEA = 0.067

5 Discussion and conclusion

The study explored effect of perceived trust and responsiveness on intention to use
FinTech. It confirms the direct impact of perceived usefulness and PEU on intention to
use FinTech services. Also, perceived trust and responsiveness are proposed as
antecedents of usefulness and ease of use. The study tests the effect by adding these
factors as antecedents by modifying TAM. The result of this study gives support to the
added antecedents in TAM. Positive perception of trust and responsiveness predicts user
perception for both usefulness and ease of use.
The study confirms the robustness of TAM in explaining the intention to use for
FinTech services. Usefulness emerges as the most powerful indicator of intention to use
supporting the prior TAM research while ease of use (Davis, 1986; Davis et al., 1989) is
secondary determinant. The secondary impact of ease of use can be explained with
increase user friendliness and less difficulty in using online systems. Also, it can be
because of omnipresence of online technology and thereby increase in competence of
users to use them.
This study also revealed that trust and responsiveness have significant positive
influence on intention to use and was mediated through ease of use and usefulness. Trust
and responsiveness are not yet considered in previous TAM research in context of
FinTech services. In comparing path coefficients of antecedents of ease of use and
usefulness, trust emerges as the powerful indicator of PEU and perceived usefulness
towards intention to use FinTech in comparison to responsiveness. Therefore, this study
suggests improving the security features of FinTech services to enhance trust and to
stress on responsiveness of their system and/or website. With these features, FinTech
service providers can reassure their users that the services are safe to do financial
transactions. They can also influence perception of trust and responsiveness of the
FinTech services by emphasising the newly added positive features in marketing
campaign. Proper training should be offered to the users on safe usage of FinTech
services. This can also improve trust and enhance user confidence thereby enabling users
to feel secure and comfortable in using FinTech services.
With the emerging technologies, there is increased popularity of FinTech. It is not
only affecting disruptive changes in financial service industry, but also making newer
 Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents 265

opportunities for telecom and retail companies. Despite the growth, the ultimate success
of FinTech is highly influenced user intention for current FinTech services. But with
technological upgradation, FinTech is posited to deliver value proposition to users.
The result enriches the understanding on antecedents of intention to use bringing
forward future areas of research and practical understanding for potential users for
FinTech services. In conclusion, these results provide several key insights for while
exploring antecedents of intention to use FinTech. First, perceived usefulness is the key
factor positively influencing intention to use FinTech services while PEU is second
significant factor. Secondly, trust and responsiveness were also a significant determinant
for intention but is mediated through usefulness and ease of use. All hypotheses were
supported. The model testing gives set of fit indices indicating model fitted well with the
data. The results of hypotheses test through SEM analysis provide satisfactory support for
the modified TAM.

6 Limitations and future research

FinTech industry is seeing the rapid changes and everyday newer technologies are
introduced in the market. The result of the present set of FinTech services may not be
perfectly generalisable to the newer set of FinTech services. Also, empirical data was
collected from a single country user and the responses can be influenced by cultural and
demographic characteristics. A longitudinal study investigating the different stages of
launch and the mass usage of FinTech service will be a significant contribution to TAM
literature. Relationship between users’ perception about behaviour beliefs, behaviour
intention should be investigated further with objective measurement of actual usage at
different times of the technology implementation process. This is will enhance the
predictive power of TAM. The study only covers the construct of trust and
responsiveness. Future research may investigate issues related information quality and
website quality and its impact on intention and actual usage. In addition, the present
measurement instrument can be further refined in further studies to enhance its validity.
Future research can be done in other product categories for generalisation of result.

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