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

Abstract

Although 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.

Effect of customer's perception on service robot acceptance

“…These factors have a positive impact on the user attitude, which in turn affect behavioral intention (Davis, 1989). The existing literature has provided ample evidence that perceived ease of use has a positive effect on perceived usefulness and acceptance (Aboelmaged, 2010; Cheung & Vogel, 2013; Chow et al., 2012; Hentzen et al., 2021). Meanwhile, Aggelidis and Chatzoglou (2009) also support that perceived ease of use affects perceived usefulness and user attitude.…”

Positive framing when assessing the personal resources to manage one's finances increases consumers' retirement self‐efficacy and improves retirement goal clarity

“…For instance, consumers might use mobile applications similar to those proposed to set and achieve health goals (e.g., Plant Nanny) to set personal financial goals, appoint an easy and clear plan to attain those goals, get a reminder on the goals, and get praise on making even small positive achievements. As adoption of retirement apps depends to a large extent on the initial self-efficacy of consumers (Hentzen et al, 2021), these apps and related campaigns might use a promotional tool with a short test to uncover consumers' strengths and connect with their perception of personal resources. Furthermore, while there are multiple goal attaining apps in the market (e.g., Strides or Goals on Track) most of them relate to the envisioned goal and day-to-day performance, while none of them are built on the actual profile and perception of one's ability to achieve these goals.…”

“…However, only a few individuals actually are-or believe they are-capable of making competent financial decisions with long-term wealth implications (Peeters et al, 2018). Hence, it is important to establish how to support consumers in proactive retirement planning and improve their belief in their capability to engage in this task (e.g., Hentzen et al, 2021).…”

“…In particular, individuals with higher financial self-efficacy are more long-term-oriented (Chen et al, 2001), act more responsibly regarding their finances (Hadar et al, 2013), use more official financial services contributing to better financial inclusion (Mindra et al, 2017), and obtain more positive financial outcomes (Hoffmann & McNair, 2019). In this regard, retirement selfefficacy is one of the core elements ensuring sufficient engagement of consumers with retirement planning and preparation (Hentzen et al, 2021;Nansubuga, 2018). However, there is scant research on how to increase consumers' retirement self-efficacy and whether it leads to subsequent improvements in their financial planning behavior .…”

Let your past define your future? How recalling successful financial experiences can increase beliefs of self‐efficacy in financial planning

“…From a practical perspective, we provide guidelines on improving consumers' financial self‐efficacy to assist practitioners in empowering consumers and stimulating their engagement in financial planning (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2013). Doing so is important given the increasing self‐responsibility of consumers for making consequential financial decisions such as managing their retirement savings (Hentzen et al ., 2021), combined with a growing financial fragility due to fraying social safety nets (McCloud and Dwyer, 2011). A key implication of our results is that it seems more effective to focus on successful rather than unsuccessful experiences to induce more active financial planning intentions and behavior.…”