Trust over efficiency: How brand credibility drives fintech adoption among home-based women entrepreneurs
Shalu Chauhan, Deergha Sharma, Meghna ChhabraPurpose
This study aims to examine fintech adoption enablers among home-based women entrepreneurs in India, a marginalized population of 20–25 million operating at the intersection of informal economies, gender constraints and digital divides. Viewing these entrepreneurs as embedded within co-evolving community ecosystems, we investigate why traditional technology adoption models may not fully explain their engagement with fintech.
Design/methodology/approach
This survey-based research gathered data from 450 home-based women entrepreneurs operating in informal settings. The indirect effect of fintech adoption enablers on behavioral intentions (BI) and the moderating effect of brand credibility on digital financial services were determined using partial least squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings establish BI as a significant mediator, significantly influenced by effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC), government support (GS), digital literacy (DL) and social influence (SI). However, performance expectancy (PE) had no significant impact on the BI to use fintech services. Furthermore, the moderating effect of brand credibility (BC) was found to positively moderate fintech adoption among home-based women entrepreneurs, endorsing the significance of the perceived reliability and expertise of fintech service providers. Although risk-seeking behavior (RS) is statistically significant, its comparatively small effect size indicates that its practical relevance in influencing BI is limited.
Originality/value
This study makes three key contributions to the literature. First, it addresses a critical research gap by focusing on home-based women entrepreneurs, an invisible yet economically significant population that is rarely examined in fintech adoption research. Second, it challenges the performance-centricity of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology by demonstrating that marginalized entrepreneurs prioritize different adoption factors, contributing to context-specific theory building. Third, it introduces BC as a trust-based moderator, emphasizing the relational mechanisms essential for sustained digital financial inclusion in community-embedded entrepreneurial ecosystems.