Toward Financial Autonomy: Why Consumers are Embracing Digital Investment Platforms

Digital investment brokers have become popular as more and more consumers around the world assume personal responsibility for their finances. In order to identify the factors that cause this adoption, a research model was constructed based on the Technology Acceptance Model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. The model was piloted on a first set of 279 Brazilians, of which 126 were digital investment brokers adopters. The study establishes that perceived usefulness, data visualization and subject norm have a positive influence on the behavioral intention to use digital investment brokers. Another mediating variable through which perceived ease of use affects adoption intention is data visualization. The study suggests the need to undertake the research in other countries and to incorporate other variables in the research model, since there is limited research on individual investor behavior in adopting digital investment brokers.