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Context Matters: The effects of budgetary and knowledge constraints on residential energy conservation

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  • Prami Sengupta

    (University of California)

  • Randall Cantrell

    (University of Florida)

Abstract

Residential energy conservation is a function of an individual’s psychological and contextual factors. Unlike most empirical studies that focused on singular types of predictors, this study examines the interactive roles of homeowners’ psychological (indicated by conservation attitude, conservation intention, and knowledge constraint) and contextual (indicated by budgetary constraint) factors in explaining conservation intention. Conservation attitude explains a reasonable proportion of the variance in intent to conserve residential energy; however, the inclusion of the budgetary constraint factor as a moderator reveals how the relationship between conservation attitude and conservation intention differs across three levels of budgetary constraint. Empirical results indicate that the condition of homeowners being in the low and high budgetary constraint segments weakens the marginal effect of conservation attitude on conservation intention, whereas, the condition of homeowners being in the medium budgetary constraint segment strengthens the same effect. The study, additionally, suggests that segments of knowledge constraint do not statistically impact the conservation intentions of homeowners. Further implications of the findings are discussed regarding policy-making and future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Prami Sengupta & Randall Cantrell, 2021. "Context Matters: The effects of budgetary and knowledge constraints on residential energy conservation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11(4), pages 561-573, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:11:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s13412-020-00659-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-020-00659-w
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