Transforming Industries, Empowering Communities: Exploring the Adoption of Non-Fungible Tokens and its Societal Impact

Abstract

The compelling potential of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has recently been causing ripple effects in several industries, opening a treasure trove of innovative value propositions and fresh opportunities in the realms of Web3 and the metaverse. The business world is abuzz with chatter about the transformative power of NFTs and their foundational blockchain technology. Yet, due to the nascent nature of this technology and its idiosyncratic intricacies, a clear roadmap for navigating the maze of NFT adoption in organizations is absent in both practitioner and academic discourses. To fill this gap, the current article presents an actionable NFT adoption model to guide organizations in their journey toward integrating NFTs into their product and service offerings. The NFT adoption model encompasses three main dimensions—technology, organization, and environment—and their subdimensions, of which the environmental dimension is the most transformative dimension, influencing and guiding the trajectories of its two counterparts. Beyond NFT adoption, the article also identifies four mechanisms through which NFTs could address community-centric societal challenges: empowerment, provenance, transparency, and identity and authentication. Thus, this article can guide organizations seeking to successfully implement NFTs and fully unlock their captivating potential for both business and social benefit.

Keywords: non-fungible tokens, blockchain, technology adoption, societal challenges