Adopting e-finance: decomposing the technology acceptance model for investors

Services through the Internet channel are becoming increasingly popular in the business sector. The Stock Exchange of Iran has implemented Internet trading as a new electronic service delivery channel, but the acceptance by securities investors has not yet been measured to assess the value of the implemented system. The purpose of this study was to determine factors influencing the investors' intention to adopt Internet stock trading platform in Iran. 385 active investors in Tehran stock market participated in this cross-sectional study. We developed a questionnaire as the measurement tool in this research. The questionnaire was administered using self-report approach. Based on the decomposed technology acceptance model (DTAM), the study integrates two new constructs of economic value (time saving and cost reduction) and perceived trust as antecedents of investors' intention to adopt Internet platform. The structural equation model by Amos software version 19 was used for analyzing and interpreting the data. We found significant relation between perceived usefulness (beta = 0.32); ease of use (beta = 0.48), trust (beta = 0.43) as well as cost reduction (beta = 0.33) and investors intention. Attitude was found to be a partial mediator for the effect of perceived usefulness on investor's intention to adopt online stock trading. Our Findings confirm that the DTAM can be successfully applied to the domain of e-business service in developing countries such as Iran and other countries with similar status of e-finance adoption. Findings could be considered as guidelines for decision makers in stock exchange to develop better strategies and practical procedures.