Finfluencer Credibility, Appeal and Investment Intention of Young Investors: A Multigroup Analysis across Generational Cohorts

The growing influence of financial influencers (finfluencers) raises questions about how young investors evaluate financial advice and whether these evaluations differ across generations. This study examines how finfluencers’ expertise, attractiveness, trustworthiness and familiarity relate to investment attitude and subsequent investment intention among Generation Y and Generation Z investors. Drawing on source credibility theory, the source attractiveness model, the theory of reasoned action and generational cohort theory, data from 307 investors in Delhi-NCR, India, were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and multigroup analysis (MGA). All four finfluencer attributes were positively associated with investment attitude, with expertise emerging as the strongest predictor (β = 0.303, p < 0.001), followed by attractiveness (β = 0.229, p < 0.001). Investment attitude strongly predicted investment intention (β = 0.803, p < 0.001). The model explained 41.4% of the variance in investment attitude and 64.4% in investment intention. Despite expectations of generational differences, invariance-tested MGA revealed no significant differences across the five structural relationships. By incorporating familiarity alongside established credibility dimensions and examining generational differences, the findings question whether distinct responses can be assumed for young investor cohorts and offer implications for financial communication and investor protection.