Which consumers are more likely to adopt a retirement app and how does it explain mobile technology‐enabled retirement engagement?

Abstract

AbstractAlthough planning for retirement is fundamental for consumers’ future well‐being, individuals often fail to engage with it. Retirement engagement refers to one's initial interest in and active planning for one's retirement. In this study, we focus on mobile technology‐enabled retirement engagement, operationalized as consumers’ perception of how a retirement app can help them plan for retirement. While rapid advances in digital platforms and mobile technology show promising use to the financial services sector, little is known about the adoption drivers of mobile technology in stimulating retirement engagement as a unique low‐involvement, yet high‐importance context. We address this gap in the existing literature by analyzing survey data from a representative sample of 440 Australian pension fund members. We find that consumers’ financial self‐efficacy, perceived financial security, consideration of future consequences, retirement planning involvement, and perceived usefulness have direct effects on their anticipated engagement with a mobile retirement app as well as indirect effects through their intention to adopt the app (financial self‐efficacy and consideration of future consequences only have direct effects). We also find that mobile computing self‐efficacy, prior finance app use, and perceived ease of use only have indirect effects through consumers’ intention to adopt the app. Notably, the association between adoption intentions and anticipated engagement is stronger for those closer to retirement.