Whether to share personal financial information through blockchain? – an intermediary perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT Information sharing is of great importance in the financial market. Most current electronic transaction systems do not encourage investors to freely share information such as risk assessment records. Blockchain, a decentralised technology with high security features, is expected to improve the current systems. However, little is known about whether blockchain-based electronic transaction systems contribute to investors’ willingness to share personal financial information. This study adopts a vignette-based experiment to enrich previous studies by explaining the relationship between blockchain and investors’ behaviour. This study introduced investor empowerment, trust belief, risk belief, and perceived uncertainty as mediating variables and considered how these mediating variables interact with each other. Independent sample t-test and structural equation modelling were used to examine the causal relationship between independent and dependent variables, and the role of mediating effect. For text analysis of interview dialogues, keyword extraction and sentiment analysis were used to understand the participants’ focus and sentiment attitude toward electronic transaction systems based on blockchain and non-blockchain. The results show that blockchain can build trust, reduce risk belief and perceived uncertainty by empowering investors, thus increasing investors’ information sharing intention and investment intention. Furthermore, investors have significantly more positive emotional attitudes toward blockchain-based systems.