The information age has dawned upon us through the comprehensive and boundless adoption of the internet; E-banking and smart-phones thus, causing a reliance on online transaction sys-tems reducing the need to handle tangible cash notes. The current monetary system is arguably on the cusp of an evolutionary moment through the adoption of virtualised currencies, this phe-nomenon potentially possesses the next metamorphic step in contemporary global economic money. Cryptocurrency is a radical new innovation, and has become a widely debated topic over the past few years despite this, the topic of the diffusion of innovation and the procedures which the phenomenon needs to overcome have had relatively small amounts of academic attention in comparison to other fields of research. Therefore, this study aims to identify how cryptocurrency is diffusing through the diffusion of innovation model with the intention of identifying the current location of diffusion; this in turn will create a more universalised understanding of the phenomenon in regards to other radical innovations. Due to the nature of the study, the conducted research utilised a qualitative method. Additional-ly, the focus on collecting data which will positively reflect an academic study with the purpose of uncovering information in alignment with the research questions of the study at hand lead to an ‘interpretivist’ methodology. Hence, 10 interviews were conducted of which the interviewees came from a range of different countries allowing the researcher to identify information rich da-ta. This approach allowed for two pathways of research to occur. Firstly, the non/potential in-vestors of which had basic cryptocurrency knowledge and secondly, current users/investors of which had an overall understanding of the cryptocurrency phenomenon. Furthermore, the pri-mary data alongside the utilisation of secondary survey questions and the literature allowed for a wider understanding of the phenomenon. The results of the study unveiled a range of trends and developments in the diffusion process. Accordingly, these findings advance the understanding of the micro, macro and psychological factors which are present in the diffusion of the cryptocurrency innovation. Thereby, the re-search draws attention to how a range of barriers synergistically working together requires a synergistic strategic approach from governments and individuals to surpass the current diffu-sion position and progress further, in turn increasing the chances of mainstream adoption.
Julio C. Mendoza-Tello, Higinio Mora, Francisco A. Pujol, Miltiadis D. Lytras
The deployment of cryptocurrencies in e-commerce has reached a significant number of transactions and continuous increases in monetary circulation; nevertheless, they face two impediments: a lack of awareness of the technological utility, and a lack of trust among consumers. E-commerce carried out through social networks expands its application to a new paradigm called social commerce. Social commerce uses the content generated within social networks to attract new consumers and influence their behavior. The objective of this paper is to analyze the role played by social media in increasing trust and intention to use cryptocurrencies in making electronic payments. It develops a model that combines constructs from social support theory, social commerce, and the technology acceptance model. This model is evaluated using the partial least square analysis. The obtained results show that social commerce increases the trust and intention to use cryptocurrencies. However, mutual support among participants does not generate sufficient trust to adequately promote the perceived usefulness of cryptocurrencies. This research provides a practical tool for analyzing how collaborative relationships that emerge in social media can influence or enhance the adoption of a new technology in terms of perceived trust and usefulness. Furthermore, it provides a significant contribution to consumer behavior research by applying the social support theory to the adoption of new information technologies. These theoretical and practical contributions are detailed in the final section of the paper.
This research intended to understand the factors affecting the acceptance of Bitcoin technology in Indonesia. It adopted the model of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), which took into account four influencing factors. Those were performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The factors of gender and age were assumed to moderate the relations between those four factors and use and behavioral intention. The empirical data for those factors were collected by questionnaires from 49 respondents. The statistical significance of the relationships was evaluated by multivariate regression analysis. The result is a model that matches the data with R2 = 0,678. It demonstrates a high level of fitness. The analysis suggests that the performance expectancy factor and the social influence factor greatly affect the behavioral intention to use Bitcoin with the values of t-statistic of 3,835 (p-value = 0,000) for the former factor and 1,948 (0,059) for the latter factor. However, the social influence factor has less profound effect on the behavioral intention.
SteemIt is a Reddit-like social news site that pays members for posting and curating content. It uses micropayments backed by a tradeable currency, exploiting the Bitcoin cryptocurrency generation model to finance content provision in conjunction with advertising. If successful, this paradigm might change the way in which volunteer-based sites operate. This article investigates 925,092 new members’ first posts for insights into what drives financial success in the site. Initial blog posts on average received US$0.01, although the maximum accrued was US$20,680.83. Longer, more sentiment-rich or more positive comments with personal information received the greatest financial reward in contrast to more informational or topical content. Thus, there is a clear financial value in starting with a friendly introduction rather than immediately attempting to provide useful content, despite the latter being the ultimate site goal. Follow-up posts also tended to be more successful when more personal, suggesting that interpersonal communication rather than quality content provision has driven the site so far. It remains to be seen whether the model of small typical rewards and the possibility that a post might generate substantially more are enough to incentivise long-term participation or a greater focus on informational posts in the long term.
Abstract Blockchain has the potential to become a significant source of disruptive innovations in business and management. There is a scarcity of knowledge and understanding of blockchain techniques that hinders its academic research and practical application. Business managers need to understand the potential impact and threat of blockchain applications in order to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Blockchain applications appear to offer considerable performance improvement and commercialization opportunities.
Cryptocurrency, most notably Bitcoin, has continued to attract attention and consequently substantial investment from businesses, consumers, and the media. Understanding what drives consumer adoption of the technology, however, is not understood. This study uses the UTAUT2 technology adoption theory in order to fill this research gap. A conceptual model is built through a review of the technical aspects of cryptocurrency, an analysis of the technology as currency, and finally a review of technology adoption theory to date. UTAUT2 is found to be the most appropriate adoption theory directly dealing with consumer context. The model conceptualised is tested using multiple linear regression analyses on primary survey data. The findings indicate that facilitating conditions have the highest explanatory effect on actual usage ahead of behavioural intention to use cryptocurrency. Behavioural intention was predicted most strongly by hedonic motivation, followed by perceived trust, and social influence. Interestingly, effort expectancy and performance expectancy were found to be non-significant, contrary to much of the studies in related fields. The study also aimed to identify the primary use-case finding that investment was the primary consumer use. Due to characteristics of the sample collected, the studyÕs findings are limited to the South African context.
The technology acceptance model (TAM) is an important analytical tool in the study of the social mechanisms of technology adoption, and this model has received considerable attention in the literature. Although empirical support for the model has varied depending on situation specifics, it remains a popular and useful conceptual framework for analysis of factors contributing to technology acceptance or rejection by the relevant constituencies. Bitcoin is an entirely digital distributed currency, the disruptive and disintermediating nature of which has fueled the tremendous growth of the financial technology space over the past few years. Bitcoin’s distributed, verifiable, and immutable public transaction ledger, known as the blockchain, holds out the promise of fast, cheap, peer-to-peer financial transactions, as well as significant efficiencies in the transfer of other assets via overlay networks. Through an extensive review of the existing academic and practitioner literature about both TAM and Bitcoin, we use the TAM framework to analyze aspects of the technology acceptance process in the case of Bitcoin as a currency and the blockchain as a financial technology. We present our findings from the perspective of both developers and end users, in order to identify similarities and differences in how various stakeholders accept this new technology. We illustrate these findings with a series of condensed case studies drawn from secondary sources. These findings are then triangulated with an in-depth single case study of a blockchain-based auction system drawn from primary sources.
Feng Mai, Qing Bai, Zhe Shan, Xin Wang · 5 authors
Bitcoin’s emergence has the potential to pave the way for a technological revolution in financial markets. What determines its valuation is an important open question with far-reaching business and policy implications. Building on Information Systems and Finance literature, we examine the dynamic interactions between social media and the monetary value of Bitcoin using textual analysis and vector error correction models. We show that more bullish forum posts are associated with higher future Bitcoin values. Interestingly, social media’s effects on Bitcoin are driven primarily by the silent majority, the 95% of users who are less active and whose contributions amount to less than 40% of total messages. In addition, messages on an Internet forum, relative to tweets, have a stronger impact on future Bitcoin value. Overall, our findings reveal that social media sentiment is an important predictor in determining Bitcoin’s valuation, but not all social media messages are of equal impact. This study offers new insights into the digital currency market and the economic impact of social media.
Through persuasive communications, information technology (IT) executives hope to align the actions of end users with the expectations of senior management and of the firm regarding technology usage. One highly influential factor of persuasive effectiveness is the source of the persuasive message. This study presents a conceptual model for explaining the influence of source credibility on end user attitudes and behavioral intentions to comply with organizationally motivated, recommended IT actions within a decentralized, autonomous environment. The results of this study suggest that the elements of source competency, trustworthiness, and dynamism are significant determinants of attitudes and behavioral intentions to engage in recommended IT actions. These findings reveal the importance of these elements of effective communication in persuading end users to follow recommended IT activities and advance IT acceptance and adoption research through the application of persuasive communication theory to the domain.