How does platform's fintech level affect its word of mouth from the perspective of user psychology?

INTRODUCTION: The rapid development of fintech has brought opportunities for business operations and economic development. Currently, few researches have focused on how fintech level affects word-of-mouth (WOM) from the perspective of user psychology. Therefore, studying the effect of fintech level on WOM is a worthwhile scientific question. METHODS: Based on motivation theory and reinforcement theory, this paper proposes a new psychology-based theoretical framework model to study the relationship between fintech level and WOM and constructs a structural equation model including fintech level, user experience, user trust, user stickiness and WOM through the analysis of 732 questionnaires. RESULTS: The results indicate that the improvement of fintech level can enhance WOM. More specifically, fintech level has a significantly positive influence on user stickiness through two mediation variables (user experience and user trust), and further, user stickiness has a significantly positive influence on WOM. DISCUSSION: This paper analyzes the internal mechanism of fintech level's influence on WOM from the micro psychological perspective, which enriches the psychology theoretical research. And, the conclusions provide specific suggestions for marketing and promotion of financial platforms in the future.