Maximilian Horn

Maximilian Horn is a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Martin Missong at the Professorship in Empirical Economics and Applied Statistics at the University of Bremen, Germany.  Prior to his entry into consulting, he completed a Master of Science in International Management (CEMS) at the University of Cologne and a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the University of Bonn. His interest in innovation and personal finance – furthered by consulting projects in the banking industry – motivate Maximilian to study robo-advisors' attributes, their customers' preferences and technology acceptance as robo-advisors constitute a nexus of technology and finance.

Maximilian's current research project investigates the role of attributes (services, design elements, cost structures etc.) for robo-advisors and their customers running a survey in the USA and Germany. The specific attributes will be chosen based on an ongoing market overview. With the help of Sawtooth's choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC), he will study the preference structure of potential customers and the value they ascribe to particular attributes of robo-advisors. To derive further knowledge on the effect of features on customers' attitudes and adoption intention, the influence of the attributes with the highest importance to customers in the CBC are studied in the framework of an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model based on a further online survey in the USA and Germany. Maximilian hopes that his research will enable the development of more customer-friendly robo-advisors helping consumers to invest more efficiently.