University of Twente Student Theses
Understanding the variables influencing the adoption of the blockchain technology.
Somon, K.E (2020) Understanding the variables influencing the adoption of the blockchain technology.
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| Abstract: | The emergence of the blockchain technology remains strangely similar to the one experienced in the early 90’s with the Internet. Some people argue that the potential of the blockchain technology can be greater than the World Wide Web, especially because of the impact it can provide through its key features of establishing trust among parties, eliminating the middleman through a decentralized approach and the traceable, transparent and highly secured network among many things. It is mainly argued that the blockchain technology is at its nascent stage, which makes it more convenient to study its adoption. This paper greatly follows the blueprint provided by Arias-Olivas’ et al. (2019) research paper on the variables influencing the adoption of the cryptocurrency. In this paper however, it has been first decided to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between significant predictors and the intention to use through both a correlation test and a regression. This paper aims to test how accurately (or not) UTAUT model, as a fundamental theory on technology adoption, also applies to the blockchain technology and to identify the key difference(s) towards the variables influencing the adoption of a technology. Several hypotheses are illustrated in this paper. Firstly, it has also been hypothesized in this paper that the intention to use the blockchain technology is positively and strongly influenced by the performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and/or facilitating conditions. In order to verify those hypotheses, it has been decided to create and share an online questionnaire that gathered a total of 144 responses. Based on their responses, both a Pearson test and hierarchical multiple regression analysis have been performed in order to determine how meaningful and significant the independent variables, as well as several descriptive variables, can be towards the intention to use the blockchain technology in order to identify the key elements of a potential and greater scale of diffusion to the masses. In reference to results from the Pearson correlation test on the one hand, each variable has been proven to strongly and positively influences the intention to use the blockchain technology where both the performance expectancy and social influence respectively displayed the highest degree of correlation. On the other hand, the outcome from the hierarchical multiple regression highlights the fact that both “awareness” and “self-labelling” are descriptive variables that have a significant moderator effect on the relationship of the independent variables and the intention to use the blockchain technology. Moreover, the sample has overall provided a positive response to the intention to use the blockchain technology since its arithmetic mean is 4.6 on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), which can be translated into “somewhat agree” on the willingness to use the technology. These findings are discussed in the final chapter where also some suggestions are given for developers and blockchain entrepreneurs to raise awareness among potential adopters and provide them with a community to support them. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/81381 |
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