The Role of Digital Artifacts in Fostering Ecosystem Creation

Since 2008, blockchain has slowly entered our lives in different ways: from Bitcoins and crypto currencies to platforms like Ethereum, to NFTs and Fan Tokens. There is often still speculation about these issues, but there are successful use cases that have revitalized traditional industries: this is the case in the sports industry. Many sports teams, particularly football teams, have always tried to monetize their fans in various ways to create new sources of revenue; and thanks to Fan Tokens this has been possible. Consequently, an exploratory multiple case studies was conducted in order to analyze how a digital artifact (Fan Token) can create an ecosystem that helps sports companies to innovate and monetize through increased fan engagement. As a final result, this research has led to the definition of an empirical model that demonstrates how the intrinsic characteristics of a digital artifact can be harnessed to create an ecosystem to create and capture value from fan-customers.