An empirical study on the commercial adoption of digital currencies

Abstract

Digital currencies are rapidly evolving Internet currencies that have been increasingly attracting academic, governmental, banking, and business interest. This paper aims to present the commercial perspective towards the adoption of digital currencies as a means of daily transactions. Considering digital currencies as a pioneering technological innovation, this study proposes a research model that combines the innovation decision process model with the technology acceptance model, adding the construct of perceived security in order to investigate the factors that affect the actual use of digital currencies. The collected data from 254 respondents, derived from an online questionnaire-based survey addressed to commercial users, were further analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The findings of this research have significant implications for academics by bridging the gap in the literature about the factors affecting digital currencies’ commercial adoption and for practitioners concerning decision-making on their adoption and use. More specifically, this study stresses the role of perceived security and the fact that managers need to build their policies regarding transactions in digital currencies on the basis of security. Perceived usefulness was also found to be a significant factor, meaning that commercial users should be aware of the advantages of digital currencies regarding businesses. Moreover, compatibility with existing values and practices affects indirectly the actual use of digital currencies, implying that managers need to perceive that the use of digital currencies should be compatible with existing practices.