Does the Intention–Usage Gap Exist in Mobile Trading Apps? A Moderated Moderation Analysis

Abstract

The financial market has changed rapidly due to the growth of the digital economy, supported by affordable internet access and the widespread use of mobile applications. Mobile trading apps have made stock market participation easier, enabling investors in tier-three cities to trade from almost anywhere. Despite more than a decade since the introduction of mobile trading in India and empirical evidence indicating strong positive intentions among retail investors to adopt these applications, SEBI reports are not encouraging, indicating a concerning gap in actual adoption rate. This study aims to examine the intention–behaviour gap regarding the utilization of mobile trading applications. A structural model was developed incorporating two moderators, namely ‘risk behaviour’, which moderates the association between ‘behavioural intention’ (BI) and ‘actual usage’ (AU) and ‘generation gap’, a categorical moderator with two groups (Millennials and Gen Z), which serves as a higher order moderator. A total of 443 responses collected through a structured questionnaire were put to AMOS v23 and PROCESS MACRO for analysis. Our findings disclose a significant positive association between BI and AU. However, the explained variance in AU behaviour remains modest. Risk behaviour significantly moderates the relationship between intention and AU, and generational differences further strengthen this moderating effect. In particular, the interaction between intention and risk behaviour has a stronger influence on millennials than Gen Z. These findings provide important insights into the factors influencing the adoption of mobile trading applications and highlight the need for targeted strategies to reduce the intention–behaviour gap across different generational groups.