Attitudes, Trust and Intentions: Adoption of Banking Technologies at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Purpose: This research highlights how behavioural, demographic and perceptual aspects affect bottom of the pyramid (BoP) customers’ intentions to use digital banking services in India. To comprehend how constructs such as perceived usefulness, ease of use, behavioural control, trust, risk perception and fees/charges shape attitudes and eventually determine digital banking adoption intention within economically underprivileged banking consumers is the main objective of this study. It acknowledges the critical value that digital financial inclusion has in promoting the use for those who have low incomes. Methodology: The research follows an analytical structure that is based on a quantitative research methodology and structural equation modelling. To collect accurate data, standardized questionnaires were given to an accurate representation of 504 BoP customers from different parts of India. A 5-point Likert scale was applied to test 34 items that covered 8 important variables connected to adopting digital banking. The constructs’ resilience was significantly checked by thorough validity and reliability testing, which covers exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived behavioural control (PBC), perceived risk (PR), perceived trust (PT), fees/charges (FC), attitude towards digital banking (ATDB) and intention to adopt digital banking were all assessed directly and through mediation by the hypothesis testing conducted within the SEM framework. Findings: The study’s findings indicated that each of the seven proposed hypotheses is positive and statistically significant. In particular, ATDB are significantly improved by PU ( β = 0.183, p 0.75 across constructs). Conventional assumptions are further challenged by the positive correlation between PR and attitude, pointing to complex dynamics in the relationship between risk and trust for BoP consumers. This unique addition speeds up the adoption of digital banking in lower-middle income nations by offering a useful scholarly and academic guide.