To the moon with Dogecoin! Disentangling the causalities behind extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for memecoin investments

ABSTRACT

Situated at the intersection of traditional finance and the rapidly evolving meme economy, memecoins present a compelling case for analysing investment motivations. Employing structural equation modeling, this research analyzes data from n = 153 participants experienced in cryptocurrency or stock market investments. Insights from motivational and social support theories help elucidate the relationship between perceived economic value and intrinsic investment factors. Results highlight that perceived economic value enhances the enjoyment of investing. Furthermore, social support influences perceptions of memecoins’ economic value, while perceived ease of investment affects only investment enjoyment, without significant impacts on economic value or investment intentions. This study enriches understanding in the nascent memes and finance field, offering empirical insights to guide future research and policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Memecoins
• Dogecoin
• investment
• motivational theory
• social support theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In today’s digital age, memes predominantly consist of images, videos, or phrases shared online for entertainment, fostering a shared cultural narrative (Shifman, 2013).

2. An effect size of greater than 0.02 signifies a small effect, an effect size surpassing 0.15 denotes a medium effect, and any effect size exceeding 0.35 is considered indicative of a large effect (Chin, 1998).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eduard Anton

Eduard Anton is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at the University of Osnabrück. He received his master’s degree in Information Systems in 2015 and worked as an IT project manager and IT consultant until 2019. He completed his PhD in 2022, with a focus on the business value of artificial intelligence and big data analytics. Eduard Anton has published papers on these topics in various journals and conferences, including the International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, Information & Management, Information Systems and e-Business Management, Journal of Business Research, the International Conference on Information Systems and the European Conference on Information Systems.

Markus Aptyka

Markus Aptyka is a research associate at the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at the Osnabrück University. He completed his master’s degree in Production Engineering at RWTH Aachen University and Supply Chain Management at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 2021 and subsequently acquired industry experience working in the field of technical process management. He is currently dedicated to his dissertation, conducting research on the socioeconomic implications of disruptive technologies.

Thuy Duong Oesterreich

Thuy Duong Oesterreich is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at the University of Osnabrück. She received her PhD in Information Systems at the Osnabrück University in 2019. In her research, she focuses on investigating the sociotechnical and socioeconomic issues of information technology and information systems, including big data and business analytics. She has several years of industry experience in the area of management accounting and IT project management prior to her academic career. Her research was published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and conferences, including Information & Management, Journal of Business Research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Information Systems and e-Business Management, and International Conference on Information Systems.

Frank Teuteberg

Frank Teuteberg is a full professor at the Osnabrück University in Germany. Since 2007 he has been Head of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems, which is part of the Institute of Information Management and Information Systems Engineering at the University of Osnabrück. He is the spokesman of the profile line Digital Society – Innovation – Regulation and the leader of several research projects. Furthermore, he is the author of more than 400 papers in numerous peer-reviewed journals and conferences in the field of cloud computing, industrial Internet of things, e-health, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and human–computer interaction.