Risk tolerance, financial readiness, service quality toward digital unit trust subscription intention

Recurring financial crimes within Malaysia’s digital Unit Trust industry have weakened the credibility of the investment scheme’s online digital services (UTODS), as many retail investors perceive these platforms as insecure due to mismanagement. This situation has potentially hindered the industry’s growth by reducing subscription intention and raising concerns about investors’ risk tolerance and financial readiness in relation to their intention to subscribe. Therefore, this study addresses the gap in understanding the UTODS quality and examines how digital service quality, grounded in SERVQUAL and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), influences subscription intention. The model integrates retail investors’ risk tolerance based on the COSO ERM (2017) framework, and financial readiness, aligned with FINRA (2025), as moderating factors. Using a quantitative design, data were collected from 384 Unit Trust retail investors, and Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM) tested the hypothesized relationships. Findings reveal that six service quality dimensions, excluding empathy, significantly enhance subscription intention, moderated by financial readiness and not risk tolerance. The results from this study have important implications for researchers and financial professionals who are interested in better understanding how UTODS qualities, risk tolerance and financial readiness could potentially influence current and future subscription intention of retail investors in Malaysia.