Fighting Counterfeits With Blockchain: A Consumer-Centric Perspective on Technology Adoption
本研究从消费者视角出发，基于技术接受模型，通过300名美国消费者的调查和后续定性分析，发现个人适应性比社会影响更能推动区块链防伪技术的采纳，且存在非线性效应。
The proliferation of counterfeit goods creates significant financial, reputational, and safety risks. Blockchain-based authentication offers a promising technological solution. However, its effectiveness depends on consumer adoption. Addressing a critical gap in the literature, this study adopts a consumer-centric perspective to examine the behavioral drivers of blockchain authentication adoption. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the research integrates individual adaptability and social influence as antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Using a two-study design combining a large-scale survey of 300 U.S. consumers analyzed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and a post hoc qualitative follow-up, this research finds that individual adaptability has a stronger effect on adoption than social influence, significantly enhancing perceptions of usefulness and ease of use. Importantly, robustness check reveals systematic curvilinear effects, including inverted U-shaped effects for individual adaptability and intention to use, and U-shaped effects for social influence, demonstrating that adoption drivers operate differently across intensity levels rather than following simple linear patterns. These findings extend TAM by incorporating psychological adaptability and non-linear patterns, offering a novel understanding of consumer behavior in technology adoption. From a managerial perspective, the results highlight the importance of intuitive system design, targeted educational initiatives, and carefully adjusted engagement strategies to promote adoption. Overall, the study advances engineering management research by conceptualizing blockchain authentication as a consumer-facing socio-technical system and demonstrating that adoption centers not only on technological performance but also on consumers' adaptability and perceived effort.