Exploring investors' willingness to use robo-advisors: mediating role of emotional response

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate investors' willingness to use robo-advisors from customers' perspectives and analyzes the factors that drive them to use robo-advisors, including perceived usefulness and emotional response.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors extend the Cognition-Affect-Conation (CAC) framework to the behavioral domain of robo-advisor users on financial technology platforms and conduct an empirical study based on 248 valid questionnaires.

Findings

The authors find two types of factors driving the willingness to use robo-advisors: perceived usefulness, trust and perceived risk as external driving forces and investor sentiment as an internal driving force. Trust has a significant positive effect on willingness to use, and arousal in emotional response plays a mediating role between perceived usefulness and willingness to use.

Originality/value

This research provides valuable insights for financial institutions to engage in robo-advisor innovation from customers' perspectives.

Citation

Xia, H., Zhang, Q., Zhang, J.Z. and Zheng, L.J. (2023), "Exploring investors' willingness to use robo-advisors: mediating role of emotional response", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 123 No. 11, pp. 2857-2881. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-07-2022-0400