A bidirectional perspective of trust and risk in determining factors that influence mobile app installation

•We survey and assess undergraduate students regarding factors that influence mobile app installation.•We present a bidirectional model based on trust and risk with privacy concerns and security as antecedents to the intent to install mobile apps.•Few previous studies have investigated factors that influence consumers’ intention to install mobile apps.•Results show that institutional loyalty played a significant role in consumer’s intent to install mobile apps.•Trust and its antecedent security had strong significant relationships with the intention to install mobile apps, while risk and its antecedent privacy had insignificant relationships. The purpose of this research is to consider how trust in and perceived risk of a mobile marketplace impact a consumer before installing a mobile application. In particular, trust is considered from the perspective of institutionalized trust, where consumers faced with ignorance rely on institutionalized mechanisms for personal safety. A bidirectional research model is presented based on trust and perceived risk as antecedents to the intent to install a mobile application. Data is collected from a survey of 214 participants and is analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results suggest that institutional loyalty plays a significant role in consumers’ intent to install mobile apps. Trust and its antecedent, security, had strong significant positive relationships with the intention to install mobile apps, while risk and its antecedent, privacy, had weak and insignificant relationships. The bidirectional model’s relationship between trust and risk was also insignificant in both directions, further suggesting that perception of risk is an insignificant factor in the intent to install mobile apps.