Switching intention to crypto-currency market: Factors predisposing some individuals to risky investment

Extending UTAUT2 with knowledge to test Chinese consumers' adoption of imported spirits flash delivery applications

Despite the rapid growth in sales of imported spirits in the Chinese market, consumers are struggling to easily buy high-quality imported spirits with favorable price. The imported spirits flash delivery applications are proposed to provide Chinese consumers with high-quality services delivered within a few hours. This study extends UTUAT2 with knowledge, risk and innovativeness to identify factors influencing Chinese consumers' use of flash delivery services for imported spirits. With the help of service providers, 315 valid questionnaires were collected and an empirical study was carried out. Findings suggest that social influence, habit, innovativeness and knowledge all have significant effects on usage. In particular, knowledge has significant moderating effects on relationships between social influence, habit, innovativeness and usage. This research is supposed to help imported spirits flash delivery providers to further expand the market, and will be of great help to the investment decisions of multinational spirits manufacturers in China.

Extending UTAUT with national identity and fairness to understand user adoption of DCEP in China

The introduction of digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) by the Central Bank of China is conducive to the central bank's timely grasp of macroeconomic dynamics and the internationalization of RMB. As DCEP is one of the first digital currencies issued by the central bank to be used on a large scale internationally, it is necessary to conduct research on its user adoption. Therefore, this research extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to explore factors affecting the adoption of DCEP. The researchers cooperated with city banks that have started to use DCEP, and distributed questionnaires to users in the lobbies of these banks. A total of 295 valid questionnaires were empirically examined with Smart-PLS. The results indicate that perceived fairness, habits, social influence and national identity have significant effects on usage, with p values less than 0.05. National identity is shown to be a significant moderator of the relationships between perceived fairness, habit, perceived risk and usage, with p values less than 0.05. National identity is shown to have no moderating effect between social influence and usage, with a p value greater than 0.05. This research provides the central bank and the government with suggestions to increase user enthusiasm and reduce user perceived risks, thereby promoting the widespread use of DCEP.

The Effects of Cryptocurrency Trading Websites on Airlines’ Advertisement Campaigns

In future years, airline companies will be leaning more and more towards cryptocurrencies to implement their digital marketing strategies as leaders seek to gain an understanding of the factors affecting airlines’ visibility parameters. Cryptocurrency investment websites are currently experiencing rising demand, making them an appropriate site for paid advertisements. The above factors suggest the need for airlines to harvest cryptocurrency investment and platform users in their favour. To this end, it can be beneficial for airlines’ web promotions to link certain web analytics metrics to cryptocurrency trading site metrics. For research purposes, web analytics data were monitored and gathered for 2 consecutive years from 10 globally leading cryptocurrency trading companies and 10 airline websites. A three-stage model was adopted by the authors. In the first stage, statistical analysis was implemented using cryptocurrency and airline metrics, followed by fuzzy cognitive mapping and agent-based modelling stages. The findings of the study indicate that engagement with cryptocurrency trading websites has a positive impact on airline websites’ global ranking and visibility parameters. The outcomes of this research provide noteworthy digital marketing strategies which can be addressed by airline companies to increase their website visitors and optimise visibility parameters with the assistance of cryptocurrency trading websites.

Motivations, Barriers and Risk-Taking When Investing in Cryptocurrencies

The cryptocurrency market is very young, volatile, and highly risky. By the end of 2020, a new bull run started, and the prices of several cryptocurrencies reached record-breaking highs. The factors affecting this rise of cryptocurrencies include the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis and the global increase in the inflation rate, as well as the gradual acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies by people worldwide. This exploratory research is focused on this last factor, i.e., using cryptocurrency and with it, the associated support of its ecosystem (e.g., mining, staking). A survey was carried out investigating the motivational factors and barriers to investment in cryptocurrency for Czech representatives of Generations Y and Z (18–42 years; n = 468). The geographic scope was nationwide, and quota sampling was used. Notably, this survey was carried out prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and it is thus not affected by the pandemic and its related economic impacts. The article investigates the dependency between the individual motivational factors and barriers from the perspective of the tendency to take risks (using the risk propensity scale), according to gender and representation of Generations Y and Z. The lack of information on this form of investment is considered as the main barrier to investment in cryptocurrency, with respect to sex and generations. Compared to that, a negative experience with investment in cryptocurrency constitutes the most minor barrier. Respondents that have a tendency to take risks are mostly put off by their lack of experience with investment in general. The main motivational factor for investment in cryptocurrency, with respect to sex and generations, is considered to be the speed of increase in cryptocurrency value. On the other hand, the least encouraging factor is the opportunity to use the high volatility of cryptocurrency for speculative trading. Interestingly, this factor mostly encourages respondents that do not have a tendency to take risks. The findings are discussed, along with the presentation of their implications for practice and the directions of further explanatory research.

Using extended complexity theory to test SMEs' adoption of Blockchain-based loan system

Blockchain-based loan system can be summed up as: information exchange between various government departments; information exchange between enterprises and various financial institutions; detection of the actual use of loans in the form of encrypted currency. This technology is supposed to reduce a lot of financing costs for SMEs on average. Therefore, this research extends complexity theory to discover the factors that affect the use of Blockchain loan systems by SMEs. Complexity, perceived risk, perceived fairness and reward sensitivity prove to have significant effects on usage intention. Complexity proves to have moderating effects on other relationships. This research may contribute to the system performance improvement and provide opportunities for SMEs to share information with financial institutions or individuals around the world, thereby providing investors with equal opportunities for competition.