Normative dilemma of digital collections: Causes, motivations and risks

TANG Xiao-Fei; TIAN Dan; GONG Yong-Zhi

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Science Research Management ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (7) : 173-182.

Normative dilemma of digital collections: Causes, motivations and risks

Tang Xiaofei¹, Tian Dan¹, Gong Yongzhi¹, Chang En-Chung²

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Abstract

Digital collections (DCs) are non-fungible tokens (NFT) in China, which are digitally distributed, purchased, collected and used by using blockchain technology to generate unique digital credentials for specific artworks on the basis of protecting their digital copyrights. DCs have quietly emerged in China since 2021, when well-known Internet companies such as Ant Group, Tencent entered the DC industry in a "flurry", which has led to unprecedented development of DCs. However, the lack of regulatory polices has led to frequent chaos and disputes in the DCs market. People′s Daily advocates strengthening the regulation of digital collections with topics such as "In the digital era, we should make good use of the positive value of DCs" and "Resist disorderly speculation and hold the line of behavior to prevent the risk of financialization of DCs". The growing DCs market has gradually become a new field of digital governance and a new object of academic research. This study attempts to explore the policy risk perceptions of Chinese investors in DCs at a special stage when the regulatory system is inadequate from a psychological perspective.
Previous studies have shown that social conventions and policy norms are important predictors of the public′s willingness to invest in innovative products (or services). So, how should the public make decisions on investing DCs when they are faced with the dual contradictory situations of "tasting new" social conventions and "ambiguous" policy norms? Facing the special and complex environment of DCs, we explored the motivation and policy risk perception of public participation in DCs investment from the perspectives of "tasting new" social conventions and "ambiguous" policy norms. We conducted a two-week data collection, and finally collected 706 questionnaires to test the relevant hypotheses.
As a result, we obtained the following research findings: (1) The "tasting new" social convention and the "ambiguous" policy norm have opposite effects on the policy risk perception of consumers′ DCs investment. The "tasting new" social convention reduces the policy risk perception, while the "ambiguous" policy norm enhances the policy risk perception. (2) The public′s autonomous motivation to invest in DCs plays a mediating role between "tasting new" social conventions ("ambiguous" policy norms) and policy risk perceptions. (3) The public′s subjective understanding of DCs innovation experience can enhance (or weaken) the effect of "tasting new" social conventions ("ambiguous" policy norms) on the autonomous motivation.
The core contribution of this study is to verify that norms are an important factor influencing policy risk perception, and to further clarify the different roles of "tasting new" social conventions and "ambiguous" policy norms on investors′ policy risk perception. In addition, by exploring the mediating role of autonomous motivation and the moderating role of subjective understanding of innovative product experience, this study not only enriches the existing theoretical framework of regulation and policy risk, but also expands the field of application of theories related to autonomous motivation and subjective understanding.
The results of this study have several policy implications. (1) The government needs to strengthen social supervision to regulate the behavior of public participation in DCs investment, and reasonably warn consumers about the financial risks of DCs to avoid the public from investing in DCs blindly in the absence of basic knowledge. (2) The government needs to strengthen and improve laws and regulations, including the formulation of technical standards and the improvement of copyright system, so as to establish a legal framework for the development of DCs and achieve compliance with the law. (3) The government needs to popularize and strengthen the education of policies related to DCs in order to improve investors′ awareness of policies on DCs and enhance risk control ability. (4) The government should strictly formulate industry norms and effectively regulate the participating elements, to avoid the chaos at the early stage of industry development and establish a DCs market system with legal compliance and standardized operation, so as to create a good trading environment for consumers and promote the high-quality development of digital economy.

Key words

digital collection (DC) / public awareness / policy norm / autonomous motivation / policy risk perception

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Tang Xiaofei, Tian Dan, Gong Yongzhi, Chang En-Chung. Normative dilemma of digital collections: Causes, motivations and risks[J]. Science Research Management. 2023, 44(7): 173-182

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