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NFTByBrands: Value Identification Framework for Analysis and Design of NFT Initiatives
Abstract
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital certificates of ownership that can be attached to virtual or physical assets. Recently, they have become increasingly popular, especially with the advent of metaverse, virtual spaces shared and accessible online. Many brands are launching NFT initiatives for various reasons including retaining customers, developing new revenue streams, or demonstrating that they are keeping up with the latest technological
advances. As for any product or service, to increase the likelihood of success of NFT initiatives, it is key to design them so as to provide value to the targeted audience. In previous research, the notion of “value” of NFTs has been essentially seen through the lenses of
financial return. However, NFT initiatives can provide other types of values to the targeted audience. This paper presents the NFTByBrands framework that can be used to identify the
potential types of values that can be delivered by brands through NFT initiatives, and can help guide brands in this endeavor. It is built upon customer perceived value theory, and an analysis of 50 NFT initiatives launched by 42 brands. The framework can also be used as a basis for further research on the value of NFTs, and a research agenda is proposed in the paper.
The main aims of this chapter were to explore metaverse branding by identifying the main trends and contributions in extant literature. Through a bibliometry and the critical analysis of the main contributions in the literature, the chapter proposes a metaverse branding conceptualization, which shows how immersive metaverse experiences that provide multi-dimensional value enhance brand engagement, which leads to increased brand awareness, brand love, satisfaction, trust, and brand equity. These factors ultimately drive online and offline purchases and strengthen brand loyalty. Overall, this chapter and the proposed framework provide relevant insights for both managers defining metaverse branding strategies, and researchers interested in these topics.
Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), Metaverse Engagement (ME), and Digital Personalization (DP) on Brand Accessibility (BA) with a focus on the mediating role of Inclusive Brand Strategies (IBS). Methodology: A total of 256 participants from the Fashion retailing sector participated in the paper. Data analysis using SEM with the SMART-PLS tool using a purposive sampling strategy. Findings: NFTs, Metaverse Engagement and Digital Personalization all Significantly enhance Brand Accessibility. Furthermore, it was discovered that inclusive brand strategies mediate this link highlighting the significance of inclusive strategies in improving brand accessibility. Originality/Value: This paper adds to the growing body of knowledge about brand accessibility in modern technology. It gives brands looking to promote accessibility and inclusion into their online presence beneficial knowledge by looking at the significance of novel technologies and Inclusive tactics.
The classical pathway of mass production followed a linear model with trashed products and wasted remaining materials at the final stage of their life cycle. Smart approaches of manufacturing and product life cycle management aim for Circular Economy (CE) models to implement sustainable business models to overcome imbalances between resource supply and demand of goods. Non-Fungible Token (NFT) solutions together with smart contracts seem to have the potential to realise such new sustainable business models in the context of CE. The study demonstrates how NFT technology can become an integral part of smart product life cycle management for batteries of e-cars. The research highlights how circular business models can be developed and implemented in the e-car sector around the life cycle management of batteries as well as how NFT technology can contribute to sustainable conceptualisation for battery recycling.
(In press) Industry 4.0 technology enables luxury fashion brands in the virtual market to quantify the value of digital items in the metaverse; thus, brands can maintain their reputations, ensure consistent and integrated luxury brand marketing, and attract new consumers in the virtual market. Understanding consumer behavior toward buying digital assets (i.e., non-fungible tokens; NFTs) is important. By using blockchain-based NFTs as a way to verify the authenticity of digital assets in the virtual market, luxury brands can maintain their reputations and help consumers protect their digital assets. Thus, developing global marketing strategies supported by this technology is important for the success of luxury fashion brands in the metaverse. We conducted analyses to explore consumer behavior in the metaverse with regard to blockchain-based luxury NFTs. The findings reveal the psychological evaluation process as a mechanism that drives consumer behavior toward NFT luxury brand fashion items in global virtual markets. The empirical findings also extend the application of game theory and prospect theory by revealing the psychological evaluation of risks associated with (not) buying luxury fashion NFTs as another mechanism driving consumer behavior in the metaverse.
A digital twin (DT) is an exact digital replica of a physical world object or asset that aids in managing, controlling, or monitoring the real object. The current systems used for managing DTs are centralized and not easily accessible. Typically, a DT is built by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and becomes hard to access and manage once its physical asset is transported or sold to a new owner. Moreover, a physical asset or object is typically comprised of many other physical sub-components. This translates to having one DT comprised of other sub-DTs. In this paper, we show how non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be used to manage ownership of DTs and to provide proof of delivery (PoD) of their associated physical assets in a decentralized, secure, traceable, and transparent manner. Specifically, we propose, implement, and evaluate a solution to manage DTs and their sub-DTs using NFTs and sub-NFTs. The DTs and their sub-DTs are represented in a hierarchical way, whereby a sub-NFT maps to a sub-DT along with its physical object. We present the system architecture and design, as well as the implementation of algorithms and smart contracts along with thorough testing and validation details. We present the security analysis as well as discuss the generalization aspect of the proposed solution. All developed smart contract codes are made publicly available on GitHub.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital certificates of ownership that can be attached to any virtual or physical asset. Recently, they have become increasingly popular, especially with the advent of metaverses, virtual spaces 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 attempt to provide value to NFT users in various ways, depending on the NFT and broader characteristics of the initiatives. This paper is a preliminary study to understand the value that organizations can attempt to provide through NFT initiatives. We examine 46 NFT initiatives from 42 companies by adopting an interpretive approach to provide a first overview. Based on our analysis, we discuss various elements on the design of NFT initiatives, and propose a research agenda.
Research on psychological ownership is prevalent in the consumer domain. This article details the theoretical core of psychological ownership, integrating research in consumer psychology and marketing. The underlying motivations behind psychological ownership are also considered as well as the antecedents and consequences of feeling ownership. This article discusses how consumers signal and infer a sense of ownership, acknowledging that the characteristics of the target of ownership vary greatly to include physical targets as well as those that are intangible. Research is discussed on the lifecycle of ownership considering the formation, perception, and eventual dissolution of psychological ownership. The authors note various avenues for future research in psychological ownership with the aim to spur research in consumer psychology and feelings of ownership.
Our understandings of money, possessions, and ownership are all changing dramatically as consumption becomes digital and virtual. The Metaverse is an imagined future space where these building blocks of neoliberal production and consumption are delinked. We examine these changes through the affordances of cryptocurrencies, algorithmic collectibles, and NFTs. We seek to disambiguate these efforts at disintermediation through online auctions and speculation. We present practical implications for artists, art institutions, buyers, and investors. We theorize new forms of ownership with fractional ownership and fractionalized property rights. And we seek to understand why some consumers pay astronomical prices for digital art that includes simple and often silly artwork with limited property rights. To do so we distinguish alternate, but sometimes overlapping, buyer motivations in the wild world of crypto art as we purportedly move toward the Metaverse.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have emerged as one of the most popular digital assets in
recent years. They represent ownership of unique items that are stored on a blockchain and cannot be changed, replaced, and copied. Digital exchanges sell and trade NFT-minted assets that can only have one official owner at a time. NFTs are entering all sectors, from art to real estate, and healthcare is the next sector. In this paper, we envision using NFTs in healthcare. We present the main components, key features of NFTs and their benefits. We discuss the potential opportunities brought about by NFTs in different healthcare areas, such as supply chain management, patient-centric data management, digital twins, clinical trial management, and genomics. We discuss some important
challenges hindering the adoption of NFTs in healthcare, serving as future research directions.
The popularity of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) has risen rapidly since 2020, becoming one of the most popular applications in the Fintech field. However, there has so far been no attempt to perform a systematic review in this new area. Considering the items of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), this paper conducts a systematic review of the research work on NFT, published in journals indexed at the Web of Science and ScienceDirect until April 2022. The results reveal that there are 13 published articles in the targeted journals and they are mainly focused on the asset pricing area. The research gaps identified in the literature also can be the opportunity for future study. Thus, we lay down the research agenda for the future in several important but unanswered fields related to asset pricing, tokenomics, and risk and regulation.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be used to represent ownership of digital art or any other unique digital item where ownership is recorded in smart contracts on a blockchain. NFTs have recently received enormous attention from both cryptocurrency investors and the media. We examine why NFTs have gotten so much attention. Using vector autoregressive models, we show that Bitcoin returns significantly predict next week's NFT growth in popularity, measured by Google search queries. Moreover, wavelet coherence analysis suggests that Bitcoin and Ether returns are significant drivers of next week's attention to NFTs. These results indicate that the remarkable increases in prices of major cryptocurrencies can explain the hype around NFTs.
Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent objects like art, collectible, and in-game items. They are traded online, often with cryptocurrency, and are generally encoded within smart contracts on a blockchain. Public attention towards NFTs has exploded in 2021, when their market has experienced record sales, but little is known about the overall structure and evolution of its market. Here, we analyse data concerning 6.1 million trades of 4.7 million NFTs between June 23, 2017 and April 27, 2021, obtained primarily from Ethereum and WAX blockchains. First, we characterize statistical properties of the market. Second, we build the network of interactions, show that traders typically specialize on NFTs associated with similar objects and form tight clusters with other traders that exchange the same kind of objects. Third, we cluster objects associated to NFTs according to their visual features and show that collections contain visually homogeneous objects. Finally, we investigate the predictability of NFT sales using simple machine learning algorithms and find that sale history and, secondarily, visual features are good predictors for price. We anticipate that these findings will stimulate further research on NFT production, adoption, and trading in different contexts.
Cryptocurrencies are a hotly-debated topic because it is not clear why they should be valued as they are. Bitcoin, by far the most prominent cryptocurrency, currently trades around $9,500 USD. "Why is Bitcoin valuable?" is a question often heard, but seldom answered well. It is not the legal tender of any nation, nor does it represent anything of physical or intrinsic value. Some people attribute its value to its scarcity, others to its anonymity, and others to its immutability, all of which are created and managed by a computer algorithm. Current theories either fail to explain Bitcoin's value or it is not immediately apparent how they might explain it. We are therefore motivated to investigate the sources of cryptocurrency value through the emergent value systems of the Bitcoin community. We use Concourse Theory and Q-methodology to discover five types of Bitcoin value systems that are complementary and co-existing facets of a collective whole, each type being its own internally consistent "theory" of value, and therefore our typology avoids simplistic generalizations about cryptocurrencies and the motivations behind those involved. We named the types: FinTech, Libertarians, Purists, Average Joe, and Gentrifier. Interestingly, four of the five types we identified appear not to value Bitcoin for its monetary or market value, despite what is usually assumed. Instead, Bitcoin is associated with its potential as an alternative currency that may be used to exchange value, mitigate various forms of risk, or as a force for social and cultural change. These five types may also underlie broader digital innovation processes and provide a basis from which to understand them.
Blockchain technology, while commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, stands to bring radical structural change to the arts and creative industries. This paper presents a history, primer, and taxonomy of blockchain use cases in the arts and then explores the implications of blockchain in three regards: the blurring of the for-profit / nonprofit distinction, changes in the ownership structure of art, and potential for new structures of public and private support and related policy changes. These developments raise important questions of governance of a technology which requires expertise in cryptography, coding, and securities law for implementation. Ultimately, blockchain holds the potential to tip the role of the arts toward democratic availability through collective ownership structures or toward further commodification of cultural assets.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a new type of unique and indivisible blockchain-based tokens introduced in late 2017. While fungible tokens have enabled new use cases such as Initial Coin Offerings, the potential of NFTs as a valuable component remains unclear. This paper addresses this gap in theoretical and practical knowledge and demonstrates the efficacy of NFTs in the domain of event ticketing. We follow a rigorous design science research approach of designing, building and thoroughly evaluating a prototype of an event ticketing system based on NFTs. Thereby, we demonstrate the usefulness of NFTs to tokenize digital goods, prevent fraud and improve control over secondary market transactions. Further, we contribute generalizable knowledge of the benefits and challenges of NFTs and derive implications for both researchers and practitioners. Finally, this paper proposes managerial recommendations for building applications utilizing NFTs and enables other researchers to draw on its findings and design principles.
The concept of value has been at the heart of marketing thought and practice. Marketers strive to develop a unique value proposition to satisfy the needs of customers in order to create a differentiated offering to targeted customers, be they end consumers or business users. It is the unique value delivered by products and services that defines firm’s competitive market positioning. Recent advances in marketing theory have enhanced the interpretation of value in terms of its types, manifestations and determinants. Value in marketing is delivered to customers, stakeholders, shareholders, ecosystems and society. While the literature has been unanimously emphasizing the economic interpretation of value, measured in money terms, marketing has been at the forefront of critical thinking bringing to the fore new meanings and interpretations of value that have unlocked the psychological, emotional, social and ecological value of products and services to customers. It is the marketing thought that has extended the understanding of value-in-use and has indisputably positioned value in context. Marketing has developed the notion of value delivered by intangible assets that can create much greater value than the tangible product and/or service. Marketing has unravelled the multi-layered nature of value to the customer and thus augmented the meanings and interpretations, as well as the analytical and practical potential of this notion. Consequently, we see the need to revisit the concept of value in marketing in order to address its complexity. This book sets to provide an insight in the concept of value in marketing in its contemporary interpretation and level of development. The aim is to offer an overview of debates and developments in our understanding of value in marketing that can raise the awareness of the scholarly and business communities of its pivotal importance for businesses and consumers.
Value in Marketing presents reflections and analysis of value in marketing by consecutive generations of scholars who have made theoretical contribution to the contemporary understanding of the concept, its interpretations, dimensions and importance. The chapters address various issues including: customer value development, implications, and trajectories; intra-variable and inter-variable perspectives of value; the importance of the value concept in the international marketing context; value developed in networks that is intrinsically associated with knowledge creation in the internationalization, meanings and interpretations of value in diverse contexts that help us develop further the dimensions of the concept. We trust the book will be of interest to researchers, scholars and students in the fields of marketing management and international business, and to people who wish to have a better understand what marketing really brings to consumers.
The Meaning of Things explores the meanings of household possessions for three generation families in the Chicago area, and the place of materialism in American culture. Now regarded as a keystone in material culture studies, Halton's first book is based on his dissertation and coauthored with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. First published by Cambridge University Press in 1981, it has been translated into German, Italian, Japanese, and Hungarian. The Meaning of Things is a study of the significance of material possessions in contemporary urban life, and of the ways people carve meaning out of their domestic environment. Drawing on a survey of eighty families in Chicago who were interviewed on the subject of their feelings about common household objects, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton provide a unique perspective on materialism, American culture, and the self. They begin by reviewing what social scientists and philosophers have said about the transactions between people and things. In the model of 'personhood' that the authors develop, goal-directed action and the cultivation of meaning through signs assume central importance. They then relate theoretical issues to the results of their survey. An important finding is the distinction between objects valued for action and those valued for contemplation. The authors compare families who have warm emotional attachments to their homes with those in which a common set of positive meanings is lacking, and interpret the different patterns of involvement. They then trace the cultivation of meaning in case studies of four families. Finally, the authors address what they describe as the current crisis of environmental and material exploitation, and suggest that human capacities for the creation and redirection of meaning offer the only hope for survival. A wide range of scholars - urban and family sociologists, clinical, developmental and environmental psychologists, cultural anthropologists and philosophers, and many general readers - will find this book stimulating and compelling. Translations: Il significato degli oggetti. Italian translation. Rome: Edizione Kappa, 1986. Der Sinn der Dinge. German translation. Munich: Psychologie Verlags Union, 1989. Japanese translation 2007. Targyaink tukreben. Hungarian translation, 2011.
Pride of ownership is explored in a series of depth interviews utilizing a new "surfacing" methodology. Pride of ownership is linked to a brand's or product's ability to help consumers construct five major aspects of identity: cultivating personal taste, achieving nondependence and adulthood, achieving social status, building close relationships, and connecting to groups. These five implicit identity goals are ordered based on the extent to which each aspect of identity is part of the independent self (i.e., personal taste) or the interdependent self (i.e., social roles and connecting to groups). We introduce the terms independent pride and interdependent pride to refer to pride that helps construct the independent and interdependent aspects of the self, respectively. In addition, this research uncovers several ways that consumer's pride of ownership changes over time. Conclusions are drawn for further theory-building and for managers.
Academics and practitioners acknowledge the relevance of integrating customers in the development of new products and recommend the use of new technologies to this end. Although they play an important role, the development of online platforms is not sufficient for effective engagement of customers, and yet it is considered a key predictor of successful co-creation initiatives. Despite the large body of research regarding value co-creation, little is known about how to design interactive platforms to engage consumers. To address this gap, this research investigates the impact of two gamification mechanics: cooperation and competition. Based on an in-depth case study including longitudinal data and rich qualitative material, we highlight the existence of four users’ profiles and then assess their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement with the gamified co-creation platform over time. We also emphasize the issues that may be induced through gamification.
This article examines how salient traces left by previous owners on used goods influence product evaluations. Based on the concept of psychological ownership, we propose the ownership distance effect in the context of buying used goods. We argue that when there are salient traces left by previous owners on a used good, it will widen the ownership distance between the potential buyers and the product. As a consequence, buyers will tend to evaluate the product less positively. Four experimental studies were conducted, and the results support this prediction. Buyers preferred used goods with salient traces left by a previous owner less (studies 1 and 2) due to the ownership distance effect. In addition, perceived psychological ownership mediates the ownership distance effect (studies 2 and 4). However, this negative effect decreased when specific situations (e.g., free housecleaning service) lessened the ownership distance, or when people believed that a previous owner’s trace would benefit them in obtaining their consumption goal (studies 3 and 4). The analysis of actual transactions from eBay.com also confirms this effect (study 5). We conclude with a discussion of the substantive theoretical and managerial implications of this research.
Since Prahalad and Ramaswamy published their seminal text, vast literature on value cocreation has emerged. Yet value cocreation still suffers from the lack of a clear consensus about its conceptualization. Using a systematic method, this integrative review provides an overview of 10 years of research dealing with this still emerging concept, to clarify insights into its definition, foundations, drivers, related processes, expected consequences, and measurement. The resulting integrative framework summarizes existing knowledge and provides a foundation for further empirical investigations, as well as offering propositions to continue stimulating this dynamic research field.
Evidence from past research and insights from an exploratory investigation are combined in a conceptual model that defines and relates price, perceived quality, and perceived value. Propositions about the concepts and their relationships are presented, then supported with evidence from the literature. Discussion centers on directions for research and implications for managing price, quality, and value.
Over recent years, interest has been growing in Bitcoin, an innovation which has the potential to play an important role in e-commerce and beyond. The aim of our paper is to provide a comprehensive empirical study of the payment and investment features of Bitcoin and their implications for the conduct of e-commerce. Since network externality theory suggests that the value of a network and its take-up are interlinked, we investigate both adoption and price formation. We discover that Bitcoin returns are driven primarily by its popularity, the sentiment expressed in newspaper reports on the cryptocurrency, and total number of transactions. The paper also reports on the first global survey of merchants who have adopted this technology and model the share of sales paid for with this alternative currency, using both ordinary and Tobit regressions. Our analysis examines how country, customer and company-specific characteristics interact with the proportion of sales attributed to Bitcoin. We find that company features, use of other payment methods, customers’ knowledge about Bitcoin, as well as the size of both the official and unofficial economy are significant determinants. The results presented allow a better understanding of the practical and theoretical ramifications of this innovation.
Research has suggested that festivals may influence the identities of the people involved and the host community itself. This impact may be a result of the events functioning as occasions to express collective belonging to a group or a place, and provide opportunities to create united histories, cultural practices, and ideals, but there is little evidence for this. Hence, this article seeks to investigate (1) how festivals influence individual and social identities, (2) what this influence on identities means for the people involved (collective identities) and identity with a place (place belongingness), and (3) how festivals influence the self-image and place identity of the local community. The findings are based on a qualitative study with 32 in-depth interviews with festival organizers, operational festival workers, municipality officers, and tourism firms related to three festivals in rural areas in Finnmark, Norway. These festivals provide core activities that build on or are displayed in a frame of local culture and heritage. The area has different challenges, in some ways related to a difficult climate, lack of work, and different ethnicities, represented by Norwegian, Russian, Finnish, and Sami cultures. In line with the approach, it is concluded that festivals do influence the identities of people and place and that all processes related to festivals influence the need to belong.
A qualitative study utilizing interviews was used to identify the core motivations for the origination of collegiate sport fanship and fandom in the American Southeast. The sample included 20 individual adults that reside in the southeastern United States, either Alabama ( n = 2), Arkansas ( n = 3), Kentucky ( n = 3), Mississippi ( n = 5), or South Carolina ( n = 7). The sample only included participants from these particular states due to the unique context they provide, as well as exploring how identity as a Southerner may influence collegiate fanship and fandom. Each of these states house at least two major Division 1 NCAA collegiate athletics department, while also not housing any major-league-level professional sports. Thus, participants were more likely to identify with collegiate sports than those living in a region with a professional franchise. Results informed Social Identity theory, and indicated that there are a number of different factors that lead to the origination of collegiate fanship and fandom. Many of the factors deal with family ties, geography, and feeling a sense of belonging.
Augmented reality (AR), as a consumer-centric technology, helps businesses by providing new consumer experiences at the purchase occasion. However, we do not know the mechanisms behind AR when influencing behavioral intentions. Drawing on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the authors develop a framework based on AR as antecedent, hedonic and utilitarian values as first mediators, attitude and satisfaction as second mediators, and behavioral intentions as a consequence. Based on 1,275 effect sizes from 58 manuscripts with 505,416 individuals, the meta-analysis supports AR’s main effect on behavioral intentions and the indirect impact through both sets of mediators. We also found moderating effects depending on AR application design, AR characterization, QR code utilization, access specificity, and display medium. For managerial applications, we developed a post-hoc taxonomy of four dimensions of AR, such as aesthetic, informativeness, perceived usefulness, and enjoyment, and how firms used them for explaining consumers’ responses.
Leading luxury brands have incorporated technologies to recreate brand images and reinvent consumer experience. The fashion industry is experiencing a historic transformation thanks to emerging technologies such as blockchain and non‐fungible tokens (NFTs) along with impactful technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and virtual reality (VR). With metaverse as a new social platform around the corner, academics and industry alike are querying how these new technologies might reshape luxury brands, reinvent consumer experience, and alter consumer behavior. This research charts new academic territory by investigating how newly evolved technologies affect the fashion industry. With practical examples of luxury brands, this article has theorized the irreversible trend of digital fashion: the attraction of NFT collectibles. It then proposes intriguing questions for scholars and practitioners to ponder, such as will young consumers, essentially living online, buy more fashion products in the digital world than in the real world? How can the fashion industry strategize for the coexistence of digital collections and physical goods?
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have recently drawn considerable attention, highlighted by a digital art piece that sold for $69M USD in early 2021. Though they have only just started receiving coverage by traditional media outlets and interest from casual observers, the foundations of NFT technology date back to advances in computer science in the late 1970s. In this article, we examine the emergence of NFTs, from their technical origins, the introduction of blockchain technologies and the first token-based collectibles that led to modern day NFT products. We categorize the current use cases for NFTs, introduce their potential future applications, and highlight the challenges managers face in incorporating them into their existing workflows. By presenting our NFT adoption framework, we offer managers strategies for evaluating the risks and benefits of NFTs.
A new blockchain-based technology is changing how the art world works, and changing how we think about asset ownership in the process.
The current popularity of non-fungible token (NFT) markets is one of the most notable public successes of blockchain technology. NFTs are blockchain-traded rights to any digital asset; including images, videos, music, even the parts of virtual worlds. As a first study of NFT pricing, we explore the pricing of parcels of virtual real estate in the largest blockchain virtual world, Decentraland; an NFT simply termed LAND. We show a LAND price series characterised by both inefficiency and a steady rise in value.
In early 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFT) became the first application of blockchain technology to achieve clear public prominence. NFTs are tradeable rights to digital assets (images, music, videos, virtual creations) where ownership is recorded in smart contracts on a blockchain. Given the NFT market emerged out of cryptocurrencies, we explore if NFT pricing is related to cryptocurrency pricing. A spillover index shows only limited volatility transmission effects between cryptocurrencies and NFTs. But wavelet coherence analysis indicates co-movement between the two sets of markets. This suggests that cryptocurrency pricing behaviours might be of some benefit in understanding NFT pricing patterns. However, the low volatility transmissions also indicate that NFTs can potentially be considered as a low-correlation asset class distinct from cryptocurrencies.
Crypto art is limited-edition digital art, cryptographically registered with a token on a blockchain. Tokens represent a transparent, auditable origin and provenance for a piece of digital art. Blockchain technologies allow tokens to be held and securely traded without the involvement of third parties. Crypto art draws its origins from conceptual art: sharing the immaterial and distributive nature of artworks, the tight blending of artworks with currency, and the rejection of conventional art markets and institutions. The authors propose a collection of viewpoints on crypto art from different actors of the system: artists, collectors, galleries, art historians and data scientists. A set of emerging themes and open challenges surfaces.
Consumer value has been widely recognised as a key factor in organisational management, marketing strategy and consumer behaviour. However, because of the scattered and non-conclusive pattern of research on this concept, no single conceptualisation or measurement has won universal acceptance. The present paper develops an approach to understanding and measuring consumer value in a service context. The psychometric properties of the resulting indices support the multidimensional structure of the value concept. Hence, through both theoretical and managerial implications, this study suggests directions for further empirical research on this important topic.
This article analyzes specific characteristics of value created through digital scarcity and blockchain-proven ownership in cryptogames. Our object of study is CryptoKitties, the first instance of a blockchain-based game that has garnered media recognition and financial interest. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the limits of scarcity in value construction for owners of CryptoKitties tokens, manifested as breedable virtual cats. Our work extends the trends set out by earlier cryptocurrency studies from the perspective of cultural studies. For the purpose of this article, we rely on open blockchain analytics such as DappRadar and Etherscan, as well as player-created analytics, backed by a one-year-long participant observation period in the said game for research material. Combining theoretical cryptocurrency and Bitcoin studies, open data analysis, and virtual ethnography enables a grounded discussion on blockchain-based game design and play.
The argument is developed by drawing on the thought of Søren Kierkegaard, Eric Voegelin, and Bernard Lonergan. Contemplation is possible because the self is constituted by self-presence in its engagement with being. Self-presence does not precede one’s engagement with being and is not an alternative to this engagement, but is the unique mode of human participation in being. Immersed in the frenetic give and take of the world, one is present to oneself. Self-presence also includes the unique quality of human existence in tension between the immanent and transcendent. The contemplative experience is characterized by awe, humility, joy, and mystery. In contemplation, one cedes for a time the practical preoccupations evoked by the pull of immanence and gives way to the questing disposition—what the Greeks called wonder—toward transcendence. Contemplation is the questing disposition of self-presence toward being.
Purpose
The context of marketing and service research is rapidly changing as a result of advances in academic research and business practice. This has implications for our understanding of customer value. The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on customer value given today’s context (including recent advances such as technologies, human contact, collaborative consumption, service ecosystems and transformative service research); to revise Holbrook’s value typology; and to propose a research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service and marketing literature.
Findings
The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this paper presents an evolved view on customer value which accounts for recent advances in academic research and business practice. Second, this paper updates Holbrook’s value typology by revising existing value types as well as identifying additional value types; and offers guidelines for measuring and modeling customer value. Third, this paper proposes a research agenda to guide and stimulate future value research.
Originality/value
This paper provides an update on customer value, which is one of the most fundamental concepts in service and marketing research. This updated perspective has been approved and applauded by Morris B. Holbrook, one of the founding fathers of value research.
We have now reached a point where we can gather together the threads of our argument. To begin with, it may be useful to make clear which elements in the economic system we usually take as given, which are the independent variables of our system and which are the dependent variables.
If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences.
This book was originally published by Macmillan in 1936. It was voted the top Academic Book that Shaped Modern Britain by Academic Book Week (UK) in 2017, and in 2011 was placed on Time Magazine's top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923. Reissued with a fresh Introduction by the Nobel-prize winner Paul Krugman and a new Afterword by Keynes’ biographer Robert Skidelsky, this important work is made available to a new generation.
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money transformed economics and changed the face of modern macroeconomics. Keynes’ argument is based on the idea that the level of employment is not determined by the price of labour, but by the spending of money. It gave way to an entirely new approach where employment, inflation and the market economy are concerned.
Highly provocative at its time of publication, this book and Keynes’ theories continue to remain the subject of much support and praise, criticism and debate. Economists at any stage in their career will enjoy revisiting this treatise and observing the relevance of Keynes’ work in today’s contemporary climate.
Purpose
In the fertile line of research on consumer value from the services literature, a gap exists between theoretical and empirical knowledge, in particular regarding Holbrook’s conceptual value framework. The present work seeks to find construct validity for a multidimensional value scale based on his proposal.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review, a qualitative phase, and consultation with an expert, eight value scales (efficiency, service quality, play, aesthetics, status, esteem, ethics, and escapism as an adaptation of spirituality) are tested on a sample of 585 hotel customers and are further analyzed with simple and partial correlations, multiple regressions, and structural modelling.
Findings
Following the literature on the merits of Holbrook’s value typology, results are presented in three concatenated phases: (1) validation of Holbrook’s eight value scales corresponding to his eight value types; (2) interrelationships between these value types showing a predominance of the extrinsic-intrinsic and self-other dimensions; and (3) construction of six indices based on the 222 matrix (self, other, extrinsic, intrinsic, active, and reactive) and a value index as a higher-order representation. The results support Holbrook’s typology, thereby supporting construct validity for the multidimensional scales.
Research limitations/implications
Implications for further conceptual research on value are presented. Meanwhile, the empirical study is context-specific, related to a hospitality experience.
Originality/value
Although Holbrook’s typology has gained widespread attention, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous research has tested all eight value types simultaneously in the same empirical work.
Developers aim at providing value through their systems and products. However, value is not financial only, but depends on usage and users' perceptions of value. In this paper, we clarify the concept of value from the users' perspective and the role of user involvement in providing value. First, theories and approaches of psychology, marketing and human-computer interaction are reviewed. Secondly, the concept of 'user values' is suggested to clarify the concept of value from the user's point of view and a category framework of user values is presented to make them more concrete and easier to identify. Thirdly, the activities and methods for adopting user values in development work are discussed. The analysis of the literature shows that value has been considered in multiple ways in development. However, users' perspectives have received less attention. As a conclusion, we draw future research directions for value-centered design and propose that user involvement is essential in identifying user values, interpreting the practical meaning of the values and implementing them in development work.
This book is a compendium of writings from the last ten years by one of the leading figures in aesthetics, Jerrold Levinson. It contains twenty-four essays and is divided into seven parts. The first is about issues relating to art in general, not specific to one art form. The second is about philosophical problems specific to music. The third part focuses on pictorial art, and the fourth on interpretation, in particular, the interpretation of literature. The remaining parts of the book discuss aesthetic properties, issues in historical aesthetics, humor, and intrinsic value.
Nothing drives progress like the imagination. The idea precedes the deed. The only exceptions are accidents and natural selection, but these cannot be willed. Ideas can be willed, and the imagination is their engine. Though progress starts with the imagination, only work can make things happen. And work itself works best when fueled, again, by the imagination. An idea or a new conceptualization usually requires the imaginative application of effort to get the intended result. Thus the imagination gets the idea and then, to be effective, must help convert it into results. The marketing imagination is the starting point of success in marketing. It is distinguished from other forms of imagination by the unique insights it brings to understanding customers, their problems, and the means to capture their attention and their custom. By asserting that people don't buy things but buy solutions to problems, the marketing imagination makes an inspired leap from the obvious to the meaningful. "Meaning" resides in its implied suggestion as to what to do – in this case find out what problems people are trying to solve. It is represented by Charles Revson's famous distinction regarding the business of Revlon: 'In the factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope.' It is characterized by Leo McGinneva's famous clarification about why people buy quarter-inch drill bit: 'They don't want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes.' It leads to Professor Raymond A. Bauer's famous point that when buyers select a known vendor or known brand over another it is more meaningful to think of the choice as an act of risk reduction rather than as the expression of a brand preference. Each of these reconceptualizations found a deeper meaning in customer behavior, thus causing marketing programs to be reshaped in ways better to attract and hold customers. To attract a customer, you are asking him to do something different from what he would have done in absence of the programs you direct at him. He has to change his mind and his actions. The customer must shift his behavior in the direction advocated by the seller. Hence the seller must distinguish himself and his offering from those of others so that people will want, or at least prefer, to do business with him. The search for meaningful distinction is a central part of the marketing effort. If marketing is seminally about anything, it is about achieving customer-getting distinction by differentiating what you do and how you operate. All else is derivative of that and only that.