Household acceptance of central bank digital currency: the role of institutional trust

TLDR

The study investigates household acceptance of central bank digital currencies using the unified theory of acceptance and institutional trust theory, while reviewing emerging literature and proposing a taxonomy of digital currency control models. They constructed a six‑hypothesis model and analyzed it with PLS‑SEM and IPMA using 282 survey responses, while also reviewing literature to propose a taxonomy of digital currency control. Household adoption of CBDCs is highly likely, driven by expected high performance, social recommendations, and facilitating conditions, but institutional efforts to promote flexibility and understandability will succeed only if they also build trust; the study also highlights customer‑specific determinants and offers launch implications.

Abstract

Purpose The authors investigate household acceptance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by drawing on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and institutional trust theory. Design/methodology/approach The authors build a research model including six hypotheses and quantitatively analyze it using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and importance–performance map analysis (IPMA) based on 282 answers to a survey questionnaire. Findings The continuous adoption of CBDCs by households is highly probable and is fostered by its expected high performance, the social recommendations and the existence of facilitating conditions. Nevertheless, institutions' efforts to propose a flexible and understandable currency can benefit its adoption only if these institutions also strive to build households' trust in the currency's system. Originality/value The authors provide a full review of the emerging literature on CBDCs and suggest that digital currency offerings can be divided into centralized, semi-centralized and de-centralized control in a meaningful taxonomy. The authors also complement extant studies on CBDCs that mostly apprehend its operational challenges by focusing on the customer side and provide implications to the launching of CBDCs by uncovering the customer-specific determinants of their adoption.