Adopting Disruptive Technologies: The Aligning Role of Intermediary Organizations

This paper analyses the challenges in the adoption of blockchain-based technologies by looking at the role of intermediary organizations. It adopts a multi-stakeholder approach, conducting interviews with key stakeholders across the value chain of utility tokens, a potentially disruptive blockchain-based innovation. These include the developers of the tokens; sports organizations who have taken sponsorships from utility tokens, as intermediary organizations; and potential end-consumers, the fans of those sports organizations. The findings reveal persistent mismatches between the value offer of developers of the innovative technology and consumer expectations and the perceived utility value of tokens, which is compounded by organizational constraints and environmental factors. Limited organizational capacity within sellers significantly contributes to poor communication and the tokens’ failure to meet consumer expectations. The study highlights the complex interplay of numerous factors influencing adoption intentions at both organizational and consumer levels, underlining the need for intermediary organizations to develop buy-in around a disruptive innovation. Successful intermediaries need to deploy the necessary organization and technological resources to understand and actively align other stakeholders’ objectives and needs.