Trust and Personal Innovativeness as the Prerequisites for Using Digital Lending Services Offered by FinTech Lenders

Abstract

Theoretical background: Contemporary financial systems have been going through a period of dynamic changes since the beginning of this century. A special role in this process is played by technological innovations, especially the process of digitalization of financial systems, which resulted in the development of FinTech lenders. These entities are active in various segments of the financial services market, including the area of consumer loans (FinTech lenders). The conducted research confirms the dynamic development of FinTech lending activity worldwide and indicates the leading position of Poland among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the volume of digital lending. A review of the source literature shows a small number of scientific studies devoted to identifying the reasons underlying the growing interest of consumers in the offer of FinTech lenders. The perceived research gap became the motivation to undertake research addressing this topic in relation to the Polish market of non-banking digital loan services. Purpose of the article: Determining the place and importance of trust and personal innovativeness for consumers’ decisions to use digital loan services offered by FinTech lenders in Poland. Research methods: Critical analysis of the source literature, descriptive and comparative analysis, diagnostic survey as well as simple statistical methods, i.e. analysis of the structure or Kendall’s Tau correlation analysis. The empirical data were collected in May 2022 using the CAWI (computer-assisted web interview) method. The research sample was representative and included 1,000 representatives of Polish population. Main findings: Among the factors determining the adoption decisions of FinTech lenders’ clients, two groups of constructs can be distinguished. The first one consists of classic prerequisites (e.g. perceived ease of use [PEU], perceived usefulness [PU]), identified for a wide range of entities offering financial services based on information technologies. The second group consists of the factors attributed mainly to FinTech lenders, among which the leading position is taken by expressed trust (T) and personal innovativeness (PI). The analyzes carried out in the article confirmed that the expressed trust and personal innovativeness represent the statistically significant factors influencing the decisions made by Poles related to using digital loan services offered by FinTech lenders. The influence of these constructs on the adopted attitudes is a function of their mutual relationship, based on the reciprocal reinforcement of these factors. The conducted research also resulted in developing the economic and demographic profile of a person using the services of FinTech lenders. It is a man, aged 25–34, a university graduate earning an income exceeding PLN 5,000 and residing in a city populated by over 500,000 residents.