Abstract

Cryptocurrency is virtual money that is secured by digital information and cryptographic techniques, enabling fast and secure hospitality and travel transactions without risks of fraud, conversion costs, or certain transaction fees. Despite its potential benefits, customers are hesitant to adopt cryptocurrency for purchases. Prior literature mostly utilized technology acceptance models to conceptualize individual cryptocurrency adoption in hospitality and tourism, preventing an interdisciplinary comprehension of this phenomenon that integrates technology, finance, and e-commerce aspects. This dissertation aims to explore factors explaining individuals' intentions to use cryptocurrency for hospitality and tourism purchases and to develop a conceptual framework that generalizes adoption intention towards cryptocurrency. To achieve these objectives, a mixed-method approach was employed, involving 29 semi-structured interviews and 401 online surveys with cryptocurrency holders. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis to validate the proposed model's constructs and scales, while the online surveys were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test inter-construct relationships. Multigroup structural equation modeling estimations were also conducted to examine the moderation of personal innovativeness, risk propensity, and familiarity with cryptocurrency. The study revealed that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, price value, and perceived trust had positive impacts on usage intention while effort expectancy and stickiness to traditional payment were identified as barriers to customers' willingness to use cryptocurrency. The findings also showed that perceived ubiquity was determinant of perceived trust and performance expectancy, while perceived structural assurance predicted perceived trust and perceived risk. The study also confirmed the invariance in the relationships between adoption intention and its antecedents regardless of individuals' personal innovativeness, risk propensity, and familiarity with cryptocurrency. This dissertation provided valuable theoretical contributions to individuals' cryptocurrency adoption in hospitality and tourism from an interdisciplinary perspective, and practical implications for practitioners in these sectors and payment service providers to optimize their implementation of digital currency.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Hancer, Murat

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Degree Program

Hospitality Management

Identifier

CFE0009746; DP0027854

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027854

Language

English

Release Date

August 2028

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Campus-only Access)

Location

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

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Restricted to the UCF community until August 2028; it will then be open access.

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