Seminar (Dept. of Management Science and Engineering)

Theme：Do Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Affect Prices of Physical Products? Evidence from Trading Card Collectibles

Speaker：Ting Li (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University)

Time：2022-06-22 10:00

Address：Online Meeting

Language：Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

Since the beginning of 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gathered considerable attention. The introduction of NFTs and the high prices that many have been auctioned off for raise the question how the introduction of NFTs affect the prices of their physical counterparts. In this work, we use data from eBay to evaluate how the prices of basketball trading card collectibles are affected by the introduction of a related NFT market named ”NBA Top Shot”. We find that the introduction of NFT collectibles causes the prices of physical collectibles to decline by about 5% (about 27.7 US dollars). By applying a natural language processing model, we identify the player and the year that each card refers to and we find evidence suggesting the presence of a substitution effect: The introduction of NFTs of currently-active players reduces the prices of physical cards of currently-active but not of retired players. We study each agent’s (buyers and sellers) reaction to the introduction of NFTs and we find that buyers’ willingness to pay drops by about 10% and sellers’ reservation prices decrease by about 5%. We calculate the economic implications for marketplaces of physical collectibles, conduct various tests to validate our identification strategy, and discuss how we contribute to the literature.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Ting Li is the Professor of Digital Business and the Head of the IS Group at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University in the Netherland. She is now a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. She is the founding member and the Academic Director of Digital Business Practice of the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics. Ting Li is an expert in digital strategy, economics of IS, ecommerce, social media analytics, mobile marketing, digital advertising, online platforms, AR/VR, and pricing and revenue management. She has been a Visiting Professor at MIT, Boston University, Wharton School of Business, Temple University, Arizona State University, and City University of Hong Kong. In 2017, she was named by Poets & Quants as one of the Top 40 Professors Under 40 Worldwide.

Ting Li's research interest focuses on the understanding of the strategic use of information and its economic impacts on consumer behavior and firm strategy. Theoretically, she proposes new theoretical perspectives to understand why and how firms develop digital capabilities and how new information (technologies) impact consumer behavior and decision making. Methodologically, she applies inter-disciplinary approaches combining large-scale randomized field experiments, lab experiment, survey, eye-tracking, agent-based simulation, and machine learning techniques to investigate the impact of IT on individuals, organizations, markets, and networks. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals (Management Science, Information Systems Research) and recognized as best paper awards. Her interdisciplinary research has been sponsored by multiple grants from the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO) and multinational companies.

Ting Li develops close collaborations with industry partners. Her academic work introduces methods, models, and principles to guide organizations to manage informational challenges, build capabilities and compete in digital environments. She has consulted and worked in various capacities with Shell, Coolblue, Wehkamp, VIVAT, AllSafe, PwC, Accenture, Tweakers, Dutch Railways, China Southern Airlines, amongst others. Ting’s teaching expertise is in the areas of digital strategy, digital transformation, digital commerce, social and mobile analytics, and social networks. She teaches in various Bachelor, Master, and MBA/EMBA degree programs and is active in executive education programs. Prior to joining academic, Ting worked for General Electric and IBM in the area of ebusiness in supply chains, web services, and grid computing. She obtained her Ph.D. in Management Science at the Erasmus University and MSc in Computational Science at the University of Amsterdam.