Exploring fintech lending continuance intention among Gen Z: a stimulus–organism–response approach to trust and perceived risk

This study examines Generation Z’s continuance intention toward fintech lending platforms in Indonesia using the stimulus–organism–response framework. It investigates how external stimuli—facilitating conditions, government support, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, and social influence—are associated with organismic states (trust and perceived risk), and how these states relate to continuance intention. Following response-quality screening, survey data from 210 fintech lending users were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The study applies the stimulus–organism–response framework to fintech lending in the Indonesian regulatory context and examines the relative explanatory roles of trust and perceived risk as organismic states, with perceived risk operationalized as a second-order construct comprising financial, security, legal, and operational risk dimensions. The findings reveal a pronounced asymmetry between these two organismic pathways. Trust emerged as the predominant organismic pathway, showing the strongest association with continuance intention, and was positively associated with government support, social influence, and effort expectancy. Perceived risk remained relevant but showed a substantially weaker negative association with continuance intention and comparatively limited explanatory power within the model. For perceived risk, only social influence showed a negative association.