Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study investigated how trust moderates the relationship between asset tokenization and liquidity access among 59 microenterprises in Barranquilla and Cartagena, Colombia. Through hierarchical regression, quantile regression, and latent profile analysis, the research found that while tokenization improved liquidity access, this effect depended critically on trust in decentralized platforms, particularly governance trust. Microenterprises with high technical trust but low governance trust showed substantially limited liquidity benefits despite active tokenization implementation. This effect was strongest for financially constrained businesses (β = 0.42 at 25th liquidity percentile vs. β = 0.19 at 75th percentile). Four distinct enterprise profiles were identified, with “Comprehensive Trust Adopters” achieving superior outcomes compared to “Technical Trust Dominant” enterprises despite similar implementation levels. The findings suggest successful tokenization requires attention to both technical implementation and governance trust development, especially in contexts with limited traditional financing options.

Keywords

asset tokenization microenterprise finance trust dimensions blockchain governance financial inclusion

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Archana

Gloth

(2024) Blockchain and entrepreneurship. In: Applying Business Intelligence and Innovation to Entrepreneurship. IGI Global, 35–51. DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-1846-1.ch003.

Benedetti

Rodriguez-Garnica

(2023) Tokenized assets and securities. In: The Emerald Handbook on Cryptoassets: Investment Opportunities and Challenges. Emerald Publishing Limited, 107–121. DOI: 10.1108/978-1-80455-320-620221008.

Blemus

Guégan

(2020) Initial crypto-asset offerings (ICOs), tokenization and corporate governance. Capital Markets Law Journal 15(2): 191–223.

Campbell-Verduyn

Giumelli

(2022) Enrolling into exclusion: African blockchain and decolonial ambitions in an evolving finance/security infrastructure. Journal of Cultural Economy 15(4): 524–543.

de la Puente Pacheco

Arias

Torres

(2024) Optimizing capital allocation in microfinance projects: An experimental case study in Barranquilla, Colombia. Cogent Economics & Finance 12(1). DOI: 10.1080/23322039.2024.2391937.

Ferrara

Messina

De Benedetti

, et al. (2022) Physical assets tokenization for blockchain market. In: Studies in Computational Intelligence. Springer. Vol. 1026, 273–282. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-96627-0_25.

Hoque

Kummer

Quiroz

(2024) How can blockchain-based lending platforms support microcredit activities in developing countries? An empirical validation of its opportunities and challenges. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 202(17): 123294.

Kim

(2020) Fractional ownership, democratization, and bubble formation – The impact of blockchain enabled asset tokenization. In: 26th Americas conference on information systems, AMCIS 2020. Available at: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85097710351.

Lavayssiere

(2024) Research note on the heterogeneity of the tokenization of financial assets. In: 2024 6th conference on blockchain research and applications for innovative networks and services (BRAINS 2024). DOI: 10.1109/BRAINS63024.2024.10732456.

10.

Muneeza

Arshad

Arifin

(2018) The application of blockchain technology in crowdfunding: Towards financial inclusion via technology. International Journal of Management and Applied Research 5(2): 82–98.

11.

Munoz

JMS

Choi

(2010) Micro-global: Can web-enabled microenterprises successfully internationalize? In: Contemporary Microenterprise: Concepts and Cases. Edward Elgar Publishing, 140–154. DOI: 10.4337/9781849808040.00017.

12.

Pacheco

MdlP

Torres

Cantillo Padron

, et al. (2025) Analyzing the role of gender in entrepreneurship education and economic success in developing nations: The case of Colombia. Cogent Economics & Finance 13(1). DOI: 10.1080/23322039.2025.2457476.

13.

Sazandrishvili

(2020) Asset tokenization in plain English. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance 31(2): 68–73.

14.

Servon

(2007) Making U.S. Microenterprise work: Recommendations for policy makers and the field. In: Financing Low-Income Communities: Models, Obstacles, and Future Directions. Russell Sage Foundation, 95–120. Available at: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84957737193

15.

Tan

Yan

Zou

, et al. (2023) FCToken: A flexible framework for blockchain-based compliance tokenization. In: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW). IEEE, 671–681. DOI: 10.1109/ICDMW60847.2023.00093.

16.

Vasudevan

Piazza

(2024) Adoption of Bitcoin as a payment method: An empirical investigation of UK small and medium businesses. In: 2nd International conference on cyber resilience (ICCR 2024). DOI: 10.1109/ICCR61006.2024.10533124.

17.

Waher

Araoz

Pablo Pulgar

, et al. (2022) Tokenization of sustainable real estate in Smart Cities: Monetization as basis for construction, authorization and carbon neutralization in CPS. In: IECON proceedings (industrial electronics conference), 2022-October. IEEE. DOI:10.1109/IECON49645.2022.9968404

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB