Technology Readiness Index and Acceptance Model: A Study on Millennial Fintech Users

Abstract

Financial technology (fintech) as an advance on financial services is disrupting the role, structure and competitive environment for financial institutions, markets and societies. It has obtained a significant amount of attention from the natives of this digital era – millennials, who have ‘connected’ feature, suggesting that they tend to interact with their peer groups and thus shape their behaviors and decisions, including the decision to use fintech. This study aims to investigate the extent to which peer group may affect millennial users’ readiness and acceptance of using fintech measured by Technology Readiness Index and Technology Acceptance Model. A total of 544 respondents participated. Based on the data obtained through online questionnaire analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling on AMOS, this study provides an insight that peer group was such an enabling, significant, and essential agent. This study also confirms that other supported hypotheses were found on optimism on both perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU), discomfort on PU and insecurity on PEOU. Furthermore, there was a positive influence of PU and PEOU on attitude, attitude on behavioral intention and behavioral intention on actual use. The findings could be used as an empirical evidence to develop new applications and business models to become more efficient.