Decoding Chinese Consumers’ Acceptance of Digital Collectibles: A Structural Equation Model Integrating Perceived Value, Risk and Regulatory Factors

Digital collectibles (DCs) are localized Chinese digital products similar to NFTs, but possess distinct regulatory features. Given the lack of studies on how Chinese consumers adopt DCs, this study develops an integrated framework incorporating perceived value, risk, and regulation factors. Through Grounded Theory analysis of in-depth interviews with 15 early DCs adopters, we identify five dimensions of perceived value and three dimensions of perceived risk. Then we conduct a questionnaire survey ( N = 1,037) and use a second-order structural equation model to test the proposed framework. The significant findings are as follows: perceived value enhances DCs ownership intention, with perceived entertainment value showing the strongest effect; perceived risk negatively impacts perceived value, driven by perceived cost risk; perceived regulation increases perceived value while reducing perceived risk; perceived value mediates DCs ownership intention. These findings emphasize the importance of policy communication and reveal the utilitarian-speculative tendencies in DCs adoption.