Acceptance of digital investment solutions: The case of robo advisory in Germany

The financial services sector is undergoing substantial change due to technological innovation and digitalization. Traditional banks face intensifying competition through the market entry of digital investment platforms that make use of automated investment advisory, so-called robo advisors. Based on replica of two German robo advisors, a sample of 96 participants assessed their intention to use such digital investment services. The results obtained using partial least squares (PLS) path modelling indicate that perceived usefulness and privacy are the most decisive factors with a one percent higher perceived usefulness (higher privacy) increasing usage intentions by 0.57 % (0.25 %). The results are robust to various socio-demographic and FinTech-related controls as well as alternative estimation procedures such as generalized structured component analysis (GSCA).