When Bitcoin was first introduced in a paper in 2008 and began gaining traction shortly thereafter, many economists and financial market investors expressed skepticism about the future of this type of currency and even questioned its very existential philosophy. Fast-forward more than a decade later, not only Bitcoin has established itself as a solid digital currency for investment purposes and daily transactions, but also many other cryptocurrencies have followed suit. While cryptocurrency markets today are strongly expanding in almost every country around the world, few studies explore the factors influencing the success of cryptocurrency expansion in different countries. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of digital readiness on global expansion of cryptocurrencies.
Applying the resource-based view as a major theory in strategic management, this study investigates the impact of the level of digitalization in economies on the global expansion of cryptocurrencies. The authors argue that a higher level of digitalization in an economy can positively affect the overall acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies in that economy. Using a sample of more than 580 country-year observations from 2020 to 2024, the authors will look for support for this theory. The authors empirically test the hypothesis that a more advanced level of digitalization in a country can lead to successful expansion of cryptocurrencies.
This study reveals that there is a link between home country digital readiness and the success of cryptocurrencies expansion into that country. In fact, those countries with higher levels of digital readiness facilitate the environment for more acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies.
This study contributes to international IT and financial technology management literature as well as international strategic management and enhances the knowledge of comparative research on global adoption of cryptocurrencies.
