Understanding Users’ Reaction to Blockchain Technology on the Online Fundraising Platform : —Evidence from Scenario Simulation Experiments

Abstract

More and more platform-based companies are adopting blockchain technology to solve problems such as opaque fundraising processes in their respective public service sectors. We conduct a scenario-based questionnaire survey to test users’ views and willingness to use blockchain technology on the online fundraising platform by combining design theory and innovation diffusion theory. We find that: (1)Compared with the traditional ones, the different combination of blockchain’s design features significantly changed the users’ willingness to use. Users of the blockchain-based online fundraising platform that reflect the design features of distributed ledger(DLT) and peer-to-peer network(P2P) have the highest willingness to use, and users of the platforms that reflect the characteristics of P2P have the most obvious increase; (2)The perceived technical credibility is the main driving factor for users to use the platform, while the intermediary factor of perceived risk which considered by scholars to be influential has not been confirmed and verified. Through post-event interviews, we learn about the reasons and explain them. Our research provides enlightenment for managers on how to use these driving factors to influence users’ willingness to use and also provides a reference for platform-based enterprises’ application of blockchain technology.