Trust, Capability and Risk in Cashless Payment Adoption: An Integrated Framework for University Students in India

Adoption research on digital payments has fragmented across competing traditions. The Technology Acceptance Model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology are usually tested in isolation, and financial capability, institutional trust and socio-economic position rarely enter the same estimable model. This paper develops an integrated framework combining TAM, UTAUT, Trust Theory, Perceived Risk Theory and Financial Capability Theory, with attitude as mediator and continuous usage intention as the distal outcome. Survey data from 618 Indian university students, drawn by stratified random sampling across urban, semi-urban and rural institutions, were analysed by partial least squares structural equation modelling with 5,000 bootstrap resamples, supported by nested model comparison, measurement invariance testing, multi-group analysis, out-of-sample prediction and endogeneity diagnostics. Integration was supported on every criterion: explained variance in adoption intention rose from 47.7 per cent under TAM alone and 41.0 per cent under UTAUT alone to 62.1 per cent in the full model, with the trust, risk and capability blocks contributing an incremental f² of 0.183 over a combined TAM–UTAUT baseline. Trust carried the largest total effect, ahead of attitude, perceived usefulness and financial literacy, while effort expectancy and perceived reliability showed no direct effect once attitude and trust were modelled. Privacy concern was negatively associated with adoption intention in the uncorrected model, and this association was weaker among students with higher financial literacy. Correcting for endogeneity reversed the sign of the privacy concern coefficient, however, so neither the main effect nor the moderation qualifying it can be treated as established. Residence, income, connectivity, family occupation and banking experience differentiated adoption; age and academic level did not. Multi-group analysis revealed a substantially stronger trust pathway among female students, a mechanism difference that mean comparison conceals.