Researchers at Temple University, the University of South Carolina and Colorado State University surveyed 350 people who had never adopted a sports NFT.
- The study, published on ScienceDirect, examined six factors that could influence adoption, including usability, enjoyment, social pressure, practical benefits and price value.
- Enjoyment had the strongest positive relationship with adoption interest, followed by ease of use and access to the resources needed to use the tokens.
- Surprisingly, price value wasn't statistically significant, while social influence came close to significance.
Greater utility expectations increased skepticism
The researchers found that expectations of practical benefits had a significant negative relationship with adoption interest.
As the study said, strong functional expectations "may generate skepticism" in speculative digital markets.
The authors cautioned that "the cross-sectional design does not show how adoption attitudes shift" as sports NFT markets develop. Because the survey measured stated intentions among non-users rather than purchases, the result does not establish that adding utility causes people to reject sports NFTs.