Storytelling in initial coin offerings: Attracting investment or gaining referrals?
通过四项实验，研究了首次代币发行中事实型与情感型故事讲述对消费者投资金额和在线品牌推荐的不同影响，并考察了代言人专业度、信息框架和加密货币目的等调节因素。
Given the scarce insights around the effectiveness of different brand communication strategies in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), this work, through four experimental studies, investigates the role of storytelling in affecting consumer responses to ICOs. Drawing on Elaboration Likelihood Model, study 1 uncovers the differential effect of two storytelling modes (i.e. factual vs emotional) on consumers’ amount of investment and online brand advocacy in ICOs. Study 2 examines the moderating effect of endorser expertise (i.e. high vs low) on consumer responses to ICOs. Study 3 investigates the framing of the storytelling message (i.e. loss- vs gain-framed) whereas study 4 explores whether the cryptocurrency purpose (i.e. altruistic vs profit-oriented) affects consumer responses to ICOs. Our findings uncover the differential benefits (e.g. financial vs reputational) that storytelling modes bestow to consumers and provide directions on how issuers should strategize their brand communication during ICOs.