To Örebro University

Purpose: This research, therefore, examines internal as well as external factors that may influence ICO’s return on investment (ROI) by collecting data from 100 ICO companies with positive ROI between 2018 and 2020.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Overall, this is mixed-method research. Based on a literature review a conceptual research model has been proposed which includes internal and external factors ( incl. 9 hypotheses) that affect ICO ROI. A multiple regression analysis was employed to examine the causal relationships in the proposed research model.

Findings: The results indicate that internal factors such as publication of source codes on GitHub, relevant ICO expert ratings, ETH platform usage, and pre-ICO processes and external factors such as Google search data and number of tweets positively influence ICO ROI. The findings reveal that expert ratings and the number of tweets are the most critical internal and external factors.

Practical Implications & value: The findings and suggestions provided in this study will help the relevant investors for increasing public trust in the ICO market and enhancing investors' interest in this are areas of investment.