NFTs as brand assets: how future-oriented visions work as mechanisms of potential legitimacy

Abstract

This paper examines how future-oriented collective visions shape the potential legitimacy of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as brand assets. Drawing on sociotechnical imaginaries and institutional theory, we study Brazilian football, where supporter culture, media discourse, and regulatory uncertainty intensify legitimation. We triangulate ten senior executives’ interviews with 1,117 Brazilian news articles (2020–2025) using Corbin and Strauss’ coding with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). We identify four visions: Tokenised Collectables, Unregulated Speculation, Emotional Wildcards, and Trust-by-Code Tech Merch, and trace their performative manifestations. These manifestations stabilise or destabilise regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive pillars, explaining why initiatives are embraced, contested, and reinterpreted as hype cycles shift. We offer staged managerial guidance for fan-facing innovation. We add a future-oriented mechanism to legitimacy research overall.