Advancing societal readiness toward renewable energy system adoption with a socio-technical perspective

The development of renewable energy systems has put a large emphasis on technical progress rather than examination of ways to foster societal demand to diffuse the new energy technologies. In order to understand demand-side issues that are important to sustainable energy innovation, this research examines key factors of renewable energy systems diffusion from a socio-technological perspective. Based on theory of planned behavior (TPB), a research model was constructed around “societal” factors such as social trust and social support alongside “technology” issues such as technical facilitating conditions and perceived system quality. This research reveals that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control impact on consumers' intention to use renewable energy systems. In addition, social trust and social support are influential factors on attitude and subjective norm while facilitating technical condition has influence on perceived behavioral control. The findings of this study suggest that business managers and policy makers should have a strategy to advance societal readiness toward sustainable energy innovation and to balance it with technology development.

[1]  R. Kemp.  Technology and the transition to environmental sustainability , 1994 .

[2]  M. Deutsch,et al.  A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgement. , 1955, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[3]  R. MacCallum,et al.  Power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. , 1996 .

[4]  B. Gardner,et al.  Going Green? Modeling the Impact of Environmental Concerns and Perceptions of Transportation Alternatives on Decisions to Drive , 2010 .

[5]  Wynne W. Chin,et al.  Advancing the Theory of Adaptive Structuration: The Development of a Scale to Measure Faithfulness of Appropriation , 1997, Inf. Syst. Res..

[6]  M. Hsu,et al.  Using Social Cognitive Theory to Investigate Green Consumer Behavior , 2015 .

[7]  A. Bandura.  Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory , 1985 .

[8]  Marko P. Hekkert,et al.  Innovation Studies Utrecht ( ISU ) Working Paper Series Why does Renewable Energy diffuse so slowly ? A review of innovation system problems , 2011 .

[9]  Stavros P. Kalafatis,et al.  Green marketing and Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour: a cross‐market examination , 1999 .

[10]  Timothy C. Earle,et al.  Social Trust , 1995 .

[11]  Ritsuko Ozaki,et al.  Pro‐environmental products: marketing influence on consumer purchase decision , 2008 .

[12]  Benjamin Sovacool,et al.  Identifying future electricity-water tradeoffs in the United States , 2009 .

[13]  Timothy J. Foxon,et al.  Infrastructure transformation as a socio-technical process — Implications for the governance of energy distribution networks in the UK , 2015 .

[14]  Michael D. Buhrmester,et al.  Amazon's Mechanical Turk , 2011, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[15]  P. Urwin,et al.  Citizen versus consumer: challenges in the UK green power market , 2001 .

[16]  B. Muthén,et al.  Assessing Reliability and Stability in Panel Models , 1977 .

[17]  Charles Neame,et al.  Towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use , 2007 .

[18]  Elizabeth B. Goldsmith,et al.  Social influence and sustainability in households , 2011 .

[19]  Jim Watson,et al.  Strategies for the deployment of micro-generation: Implications for social acceptance , 2007 .

[20]  A. Vaux,et al.  The social support appraisals (SS-A) scale: Studies of reliability and validity , 1986 .

[21]  Rob Kling,et al.  Learning About Information Technologies and Social Change: The Contribution of Social Informatics , 2000, Inf. Soc..

[22]  Alexandra Mallett,et al.  Social acceptance of renewable energy innovations: The role of technology cooperation in urban Mexico , 2007 .

[23]  Gerardo Marletto,et al.  Car and the city: Socio-technical transition pathways to 2030 , 2014 .

[24]  D. Horst.  NIMBY or not? Exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies , 2007 .

[25]  Eunil Park,et al.  Factors influencing the public intention to use renewable energy technologies in South Korea: Effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident , 2014 .

[26]  Cees J. H. Midden,et al.  The role of negative associations and trust in risk perception of new hydrogen systems , 2008 .

[27]  P. Bentler,et al.  Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1980 .

[28]  Paul Parker,et al.  CONSUMERS AND GREEN ELECTRICITY: PROFILING POTENTIAL PURCHASERS , 2003 .

[29]  S. Bamberg.  How does environmental concern influence specific environmentally related behaviors? A new answer to an old question , 2003 .

[30]  Peter A. Todd,et al.  Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[31]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies , 2000, Management Science.

[32]  N. Frantzeskaki,et al.  Moving forward or slowing-down? Exploring what impedes the Hellenic energy transition to a sustainable future , 2013 .

[33]  Rolf Wüstenhagen,et al.  Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept , 2007 .

[34]  E. Rogers.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1962 .

[35]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Lisrel 8: User's Reference Guide , 1997 .

[36]  Tsun-Jen Cheng,et al.  Public attitudes toward nanotechnology applications in Taiwan , 2013 .

[37]  Harald Rohracher,et al.  Managing the Technological Transition to Sustainable Construction of Buildings: A Socio-Technical Perspective , 2001, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[38]  F. Geels,et al.  Exploring sustainability transitions in the electricity sector with socio-technical pathways , 2010 .

[39]  Hung-Pin Shih,et al.  An empirical study on predicting user acceptance of e-shopping on the Web , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[40]  Gwo-Guang Lee,et al.  Effects of socio‐technical factors on organizational intention to encourage knowledge sharing , 2006 .

[41]  D. Chan,et al.  Reexamining the Theory of Planned Behavior in Understanding Wastepaper Recycling , 1999 .

[42]  A. Jobert,et al.  Local acceptance of wind energy: Factors of success identified in French and German case studies , 2007 .

[43]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  Personal Computing: Toward a Conceptual Model of Utilization , 1991, MIS Q..

[44]  P. Pearson,et al.  The socio-technical transition of distributed electricity storage into future networks - System value and stakeholder views , 2012 .

[45]  Kiminori Gemba,et al.  Analyzing the innovation process for environmental performance improvement , 2006 .

[46]  L. Steg,et al.  Psychological factors influencing sustainable energy technology acceptance: A review-based comprehensive framework , 2012 .

[47]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[48]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Examining Trust in Information Technology Artifacts: The Effects of System Quality and Culture , 2008, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[49]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[50]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[51]  E. Fraj,et al.  Environmental values and lifestyles as determining factors of ecological consumer behaviour: an empirical analysis , 2006 .

[52]  Robert R. Harmon,et al.  A multiple perspectives view of the market case for green energy , 2009 .

[53]  D. Mowery,et al.  Inside the black box: The influence of market demand upon innovation: a critical review of some recent empirical studies , 1993 .

[54]  I. Rowlands,et al.  Consumer perceptions of “green power” , 2002 .

[55]  Alexander E. Ellinger,et al.  Consumer concern, knowledge, belief, and attitude toward renewable energy: An application of the reasoned action theory , 2000 .

[56]  Wander Jager,et al.  Stimulating the diffusion of photovoltaic systems: A behavioural perspective , 2006 .

[57]  D. Terry,et al.  The theory of planned behaviour: the effects of perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy. , 1995, The British journal of social psychology.

[58]  C. Gross,et al.  Community perspectives of wind energy in Australia: The application of a justice and community fairness framework to increase social acceptance , 2007 .

[59]  Emmanuel G. Koukios,et al.  Solar systems diffusion in local markets , 2004 .

[60]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[61]  Steve Sawyer,et al.  Broadband and mobile opportunities: a socio-technical perspective , 2003, J. Inf. Technol..

[62]  M. Siegrist,et al.  Salient Value Similarity, Social Trust, and Risk/Benefit Perception , 2000, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[63]  W. S. Chow,et al.  Social network, social trust and shared goals in organizational knowledge sharing , 2008, Inf. Manag..

[64]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[65]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[66]  Timothy F. Smith,et al.  The influence of consumers' environmental beliefs and attitudes on energy saving behaviours , 2011 .

[67]  Aidan O'Driscoll,et al.  The diffusion of microgeneration technologies – assessing the influence of perceived product characteristics on home owners' willingness to pay , 2011 .

[68]  H. Staats,et al.  Explaining Proenvironmental Intention and Behavior by Personal Norms and the Theory of Planned Behavior1 , 1999 .

[69]  Peter B. Seddon.  A Respecification and Extension of the DeLone and McLean Model of IS Success , 1997, Inf. Syst. Res..

[70]  Adrian Smith,et al.  The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions , 2005 .

[71]  Cees J H Midden,et al.  The Role of Trust in the Affective Evaluation of Novel Risks: The Case of CO2 Storage , 2009, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[72]  R. Ozaki.  Adopting sustainable innovation: what makes consumers sign up to green electricity? , 2011 .

[73]  San-Pui Lam.  Predicting Intention to Save Water: Theory of Planned Behavior, Response Efficacy, Vulnerability, and Perceived Efficiency of Alternative Solutions , 2006 .

[74]  Chang Liu,et al.  Technology acceptance model for wireless Internet , 2003, Internet Res..

[75]  J. Schot,et al.  Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of niche formation : the approach of strategic niche management , 1998 .