Providing Customer Value through Non-Fungible Tokens: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital certificates of ownership that can be attached to any virtual or physical item. Recently, they have become increasingly popular, especially with the advent of metaverses, virtual spaces that are shared and accessible online. Many organizations are launching NFT initiatives for a variety of reasons including retaining customers, developing new revenue streams, or demonstrating that they are keeping up with the latest technological advances. When organizations launch NFT initiatives, they provide value to NFT users in various ways, depending on the NFT characteristics. This paper is a preliminary study to understand the value offered by organizations and perceived by NFT users. We examine 46 NFT initiatives from 42 companies to determine what value can be provided to users of NFTs. The goal is to provide a basis for further analysis on the values of NFTs and to support the design of Information Systems for NFTs.