The proliferation of counterfeit goods creates significant financial, reputational, and safety risks. Blockchain-based authentication offers a promising technological solution. However, its effectiveness depends on consumer adoption. Addressing a critical gap in the literature, in this article, we adopt a consumer-centric perspective to examine the behavioral drivers of blockchain authentication adoption. Drawing on the technology acceptance model (TAM), the research integrates individual adaptability and social influence as antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Using a two-study design combining a large-scale survey of 300 U.S. consumers analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling and a post-hoc qualitative follow-up, this research finds that individual adaptability has a stronger effect on adoption than social influence, significantly enhancing the perceptions of usefulness and ease of use. Importantly, robustness check reveals systematic curvilinear effects, including inverted U-shaped effects for individual adaptability and intention to use, and U-shaped effects for social influence, demonstrating that adoption drivers operate differently across intensity levels rather than following simple linear patterns. These findings extend TAM by incorporating psychological adaptability and nonlinear patterns, offering a novel understanding of consumer behavior in technology adoption. From a managerial perspective, the results highlight the importance of intuitive system design, targeted educational initiatives, and carefully adjusted engagement strategies to promote adoption. Overall, the study advances engineering management research by conceptualizing blockchain authentication as a consumer-facing sociotechnical system and demonstrating that adoption centers not only on technological performance but also on consumers' adaptability and perceived effort.

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Anticounterfeiting,Blockchain authentication,Individual adaptability,Social influence,Technology acceptance model (TAM),Technology adoption

• Economics and Business - Social Sciences