Undergraduate students' opinions of peer-to-peer lending and pawnbroking: a comparison study in Vietnam

University students are potential customers of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and pawnbroking services. However, the existing literature has primarily underestimated such borrowers' opinions of these services, especially from a comparative standpoint. In addition, previous studies have also neglected the implications for personal financial and accounting education and assistance, in general, and in Vietnam, in particular. Therefore, this study explored the correlations among motivations, perceived benefits, perceived risks, perceived trust, and customer intentions toward P2P borrowing and pawnbroking in Vietnam. Specifically, this study collected data from 295 and 314 students at a national university in Hanoi. A comparison analysis of the evaluations of the two samples revealed that the students perceived P2P lending to be more favorable. Furthermore, regression analyses suggested that motivation could significantly affect the students' intentions to use and recommend P2P lending and pawnbroking, although the impacts were more prominent in the P2P model. Perceived risks and trust significantly mediated the association between motivations and intentions; the effects of the former were negative, while these of the latter were positive. Implications for personal finance and accounting education at the undergraduate levels were discussed based on these findings.