Adoption of Bitcoin as a Payment Method: An Empirical Investigation of UK Small and Medium Businesses

From the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency ecosystem can be seen as a disintermediating and disruptive technology which has incited huge growth of the fintech space over the last decade with an estimated 12,000 currencies in circulation. The growth of cryptocurrency is unprecedented and there is a world-wide increase in the number of companies that are accepting digital assets such as crypto currencies for transactional as well as other investment purposes. Despite the innovativeness of cryptocurrencies and the use of public, decentralised ledger through the underlying blockchain technology, small and medium businesses have been slow at adopting it. While several studies have looked at uptake of cryptocurrencies by using quantitative methods, there is a lack of studies employing qualitative data for exploring concepts and themes associated with the adoption of cryptocurrencies. The aim of this study is to uncover the qualitative factors that contribute to the adoption of cryptocurrency, e.g. Bitcoin, as a payment. Furthermore, researchers have paid attention to the adoption of this technology globally and very few studies focus specifically on public adoption and not much heed is given on determinants of cryptocurrency adoption especially among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Micro SMEs (MSMEs). Using a sample of 75 SMEs/MSMEs in the UK, this study applies Leximancer qualitative tool to analyse the narrative data and identify the pivotal technology adoption factors. The UK has been chosen for this study as the Government has an ambition to make UK the “global hub for cryptoassets”. More specifically, the report by FCA showed that 2.3 million individuals in the UK owned cryptocurrencies in 2021 and this was estimated to grow further. This research has empirical and practical contributions related to the understanding of how users adopt new technologies in their own organizations. The findings show that social influence and benefits of the technology play an important role in adoption of Bitcoin, while regulation and lack of knowledge act as detriments in the adoption decision of business users.