The consumer says ‘no’:
How behavioural models explain
consumers’
attitudes to microgeneration
Aidan O’Driscoll, School of Marketing
Home owners’ attitudes, perceptions, and willingness to
pay for microgeneration technologies
Sample 1000+
SEAI
Claudy, M, A.O’Driscoll and A. Duffy (2011), Home Owners’ Attitudes, Perceptions,
and Willingness to Pay for Microgeneration Technologies, Report prepared for the
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Authority (SEAI) by the Dublin Institute of
Technology & Dublin Energy Lab, 71pp.
Claudy, M., A. O’Driscoll, C. Michelsen, and M. R. Mullen (2010), “Consumer
awareness in the adoption of microgeneration technologies: an empirical
investigation in the Republic of Ireland”, Sustainable & Renewable Energy
Reviews, volume 14, issue 7, pp. 2154-2160.
Behavioral models and microgeneration innovation
Diffusion of innovation theory (DOI; Rogers 1962)
Theory of reasoned action (TRA; Fishbein and Ajzen 1975)
Technology acceptance model (TAM; Davis 1989)
Behavioural reseasoning theory (BRT; Westaby 2005)
Innovation adoption and resistance
Adoption factors
Resistance factors
Innovation attributes/benefits:
Functional barriers:
Relative advantage
Usage barriers
Compatibility
Value barriers
Complexity
Risk barriers (financial,
performance, social)
Trialability
Observability
Psychological barriers:
Perceived usefulness
Tradition and norm barriers
Perceived ease of use
Image barriers
Behavioural reasoning theory
Reasons for
adoption
Attitudes
towards
adoption
Values
Adoption
intentions
Reasons against
adoption
Attitude–behaviour gap…
Source: adapted from Westaby, 2005
Adoption
behaviour
Behavioural reasoning theory and microgeneration innovation
Financial
benefits
Environmental
benefits
Independence
benefits
Reasons for
adoption
Attitudes
towards
adoption
Values
Reasons against
adoption
Value barrier
Risk barrier
Usage barrier
Adoption
intentions
Adoption
behaviour
Solar energy panels: significant paths in the behavioural model
Financial
benefits
.90
.57
Environmental
benefits
Independence
benefits
.84
.69
Reasons for
adoption
.65
Attitudes
towards
adoption
Values
Reasons against
adoption
.44
Value barrier
.45
Risk barrier
.72
–0.29
Usage barrier
Compatibility
.26
Adoption
intentions
Adoption
behavior
Micro wind turbines: significant paths in the behavioural model
Financial
benefits
.87
.63
Environmental
benefits
Independence
benefits
.83
.86
.16 ‘Loss inversion’
Reasons for
adoption
.59
Attitudes
towards
adoption
Values
Reasons against
adoption
.59
Value barrier
Initial cost
.34
Risk barrier
.33
–0.31
Usage barrier
.29
Adoption
intentions
Adoption
behavior
Conclusions
To understand the attitude-behaviour gap in microgeneration
innovation, we need to investigate reasoning – and particularly
reasoning against, as reasons against can weight more heavily.
This will allow us to understand the complex cognitive decision
making processes/path of the consumer, and set in place the best
public policy interventions and company marketing strategies.
Investigating consumer’s reasons for and against requires systematic
investigation, such as reason elicitation studies, and increasingly
ethnographic-type techniques.
‘UX – user-experience design – is the art of bridging people and technology’
Frank Long, frontend.com