Beyond Blockchain: How Tokens Trigger the Internet of Value and what Marketing Researchers Need to Know About Them

The rapidly growing importance of blockchain technology has taken many scholars and industry professionals by surprise. Its emergence has sparked a multitude of innovative, yet largely untested use cases and business models that have the potential to substantially transform the marketing landscape. More specifically, blockchain as the base technology in combination with tokenization has the potential to fundamentally transform marketing communication by changing the ways in which companies and their customers interact. While academic research still ponders how blockchain can be best incorporated into existing research streams, the industry tests numerous ideas on a trial-and-error basis. Blockchains comprise a diverse array of complex and rapidly developing technological building blocks, which makes them hard to understand and integrate into existing marketing frameworks, models, and theories. In contrast, a specific focus on tokens facilitates understanding and classification. In this paper, we clarify the terminology surrounding the emerging token ecosystem from a marketing perspective, illustrate how tokens can potentially impact the marketing profession, and recommend approaches for their integration into academic research.