Digital transformation in financial industry: antecedents of fintech adoption, financial literacy and quality of life

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the variables that could contribute to facilitating or hindering FinTech adoption in Jordan and how that will affect human well-being (quality of life [QoL]).

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework was formulated through the integration of “the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology” (UTAUT), “task-technology fit” (TTF) model and two additional factors, namely, “financial literacy” (FL) and “quality of life” (QoL). A cross-sectional online survey was used to obtain data from 378 FinTech users employing a quantitative method. AMOS 26.0 was utilized to analyse the data based on “structural equation modelling” (SEM).

Findings

The analysis of the structural path found that UTAUT constructs including “performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC), social influence (SI)”, and TTF were significant determinants of FinTech adoption. Only technology characteristics (TECH) was a significant predictor of TTF. Also, the analysis of empirical data revealed a significant mediating impact of FinTech adoption on the association between FL and QoL, underlining the important role of digital FL in digitalizing societies. Likewise, FL affected the QoL directly.

Practical implications

This research will be beneficial for “FinTech service providers” (FSPs) and policymakers to offer thorough insights regarding the current relatively low acceptance rates of FinTech, contributing to strategies’ formulation that could promote FinTech usage by Jordanian customers, where FinTech is still considered an innovative technology. In addition, FL needs to integrate digital literacy to utilize state-of-the-art technologies for more effective financial management. This is with being able to make decisions facilitating the management of life outcomes which could result in better QoL.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first research paper that integrates the UTAUT and TTF models and also adds two additional constructs, namely, FL and QoL, to investigate the FinTech in the Jordanian setting. This study could contribute to the literature on IT adoption by considering FinTech usage and incorporation into individuals’ life in Jordan.