Financial Literacy, Financial Attitude, and Sharia Investment Intention among Muslim Generation Z: The Moderating Role of Religiosity
Abstract
The growing participation of Generation Z in digital financial markets has increased the importance of understanding how financial capability, financial attitudes, and religious values jointly shape Sharia-compliant investment intentions. However, limited evidence explains whether religiosity strengthens the extent to which financial literacy and favorable financial attitudes translate into Sharia investment intention. This study examines the effects of financial literacy and financial attitude on Sharia investment intention and investigates the moderating role of religiosity among Muslim Generation Z. A quantitative research design was employed involving 212 Muslim Generation Z respondents aged 18–26 years in North Luwu Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Data were collected using purposive sampling and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4 and bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples. The results indicate that financial literacy positively influences Sharia investment intention (β = 0.246, p = 0.001), while financial attitude has a stronger positive effect (β = 0.325, p = 0.001). Religiosity also has a positive lower-order effect on Sharia investment intention (β = 0.260, p = 0.013) and positively moderates the relationships between financial literacy and Sharia investment intention (β = 0.151, p = 0.048) and between financial attitude and Sharia investment intention (β = 0.199, p = 0.035). The model explains 42.4% of the variance in Sharia investment intention (R² = 0.424) and demonstrates predictive relevance (Q² = 0.318). The findings demonstrate that religiosity serves as a value-based boundary condition that strengthens the translation of financial capability and favorable financial attitudes into Sharia-compliant investment intention, providing practical implications for Islamic financial institutions, policymakers, investment platforms, and financial educators.