IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v53y2013icp159-168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The value of social networks in the diffusion of energy-efficiency innovations in UK households

Author

Listed:
  • McMichael, Megan
  • Shipworth, David

Abstract

The UK Government has policy goals for increasing energy efficiency in existing homes. However, there are doubts that standard technology and behavioural innovations will be adopted widely enough in time to achieve the targets. Diffusion of innovation theory states that the communication of information on innovations through a social system encourages adoption. Social capital theory states that interpersonal communication is a key means of gaining resources, such as information on energy-efficiency innovations, for attaining certain goals. Case study research of three British communities was conducted in 2009 in order to understand the influence of social capital on information diffusion regarding the adoption of household energy-efficiency measures. The findings show that while standard campaigns may account for two-thirds of information-seeking behaviour, they may not be addressing up to one-third of information-seekers who would prefer to speak to people they know. Findings also indicate that seeking information amongst personal contacts is often associated with adoption of energy-efficiency innovations, increasing the likelihood of adoption by up to four times, but that there are important differences between types of innovations and communities. Tailoring campaigns to communities' communication channels is therefore imperative. These findings have important implications for informing community-based energy-efficiency programmes.

Suggested Citation

  • McMichael, Megan & Shipworth, David, 2013. "The value of social networks in the diffusion of energy-efficiency innovations in UK households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 159-168.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:53:y:2013:i:c:p:159-168
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.10.039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512009202
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.10.039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Carolina Castaldi, 2008. "Knowledge base, information search and intention to adopt innovation," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 08-02, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Feb 2008.
    2. Richard Ball & Ross Cullen & Christopher Gan, 1999. "The diffusion of energy efficiency innovations among residential energy consumers," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 115-135.
    3. Darby, Sarah, 2006. "Social learning and public policy: Lessons from an energy-conscious village," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 2929-2940, November.
    4. Faiers, Adam & Cook, Matt & Neame, Charles, 2007. "Towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4381-4390, August.
    5. Coltrane, Scott & Archer, Dane & Aronson, Elliot, 1986. "The social-psychological foundations of successful energy conservation programmes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 133-148, April.
    6. Curtis, Fred A. & Simpson-Housley, P. & Drever, S., 1984. "Communications on energy Household energy conservation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 452-456, December.
    7. Ek, Kristina & Söderholm, Patrik, 2010. "The devil is in the details: Household electricity saving behavior and the role of information," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1578-1587, March.
    8. Shin‐jeng Lin & Nick Belkin, 2005. "Validation of a model of information seeking over multiple search sessions," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 56(4), pages 393-415, February.
    9. Brown, Jacqueline Johnson & Reingen, Peter H, 1987. "Social Ties and Word-of-Mouth Referral Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 350-362, December.
    10. Paul C. Stern, 1986. "Blind spots in policy analysis: What economics doesn't say about energy use," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(2), pages 200-227.
    11. Van Raaij, W. Fred & Verhallen, Theo M. M., 1983. "A behavioral model of residential energy use," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 39-63.
    12. Woolcock, Michael & Narayan, Deepa, 2000. "Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 15(2), pages 225-249, August.
    13. Jaffe, Adam B. & Stavins, Robert N., 1994. "The energy-efficiency gap What does it mean?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 804-810, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sapio, Alessandro, 2019. "Energy saving in Italy in the late 1990s: Which role for non-monetary motivations?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2012. "Residential energy-efficient technology adoption, energy conservation, knowledge, and attitudes: An analysis of European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 616-628.
    3. Trotta, Gianluca, 2018. "Factors affecting energy-saving behaviours and energy efficiency investments in British households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 529-539.
    4. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan & Guivarch, Céline & Quirion, Philippe, 2012. "Exploring the potential for energy conservation in French households through hybrid modeling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 426-445.
    5. Kalantzis, Fotios & Revoltella, Debora, 2019. "How energy audits promote SMEs' energy efficiency investment," EIB Working Papers 2019/02, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    6. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2016. "Making the implicit explicit: A look inside the implicit discount rate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 321-331.
    7. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    8. repec:zbw:rwirep:0335 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Sardianou, Eleni, 2007. "Estimating energy conservation patterns of Greek households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3778-3791, July.
    10. Pelenur, Marcos J. & Cruickshank, Heather J., 2012. "Closing the Energy Efficiency Gap: A study linking demographics with barriers to adopting energy efficiency measures in the home," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 348-357.
    11. Fleiter, Tobias & Schleich, Joachim & Ravivanpong, Ployplearn, 2012. "Adoption of energy-efficiency measures in SMEs—An empirical analysis based on energy audit data from Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 863-875.
    12. Yue, Ting & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong, 2013. "Factors influencing energy-saving behavior of urban households in Jiangsu Province," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 665-675.
    13. Ana Ramos & Xavier Labandeira & Andreas Löschel, 2016. "Pro-environmental Households and Energy Efficiency in Spain," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 367-393, February.
    14. Cem Keskin & M. Pınar Mengüç, 2018. "On Occupant Behavior and Innovation Studies Towards High Performance Buildings: A Transdisciplinary Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-33, October.
    15. Manuel Frondel & Colin Vance, 2013. "Heterogeneity in the Effect of Home Energy Audits: Theory and Evidence," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(3), pages 407-418, July.
    16. Laurie Buys & Desley Vine & Gerard Ledwich & John Bell & Kerrie Mengersen & Peter Morris & Jim Lewis, 2015. "A Framework for Understanding and Generating Integrated Solutions for Residential Peak Energy Demand," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, March.
    17. Tobias Fleitera & Joachim Schleich & Ployplearn Ravivanpong, 2012. "Adoption of energy-efficiency measures in SMEs - An empirical analysis based on energy audit data," Post-Print hal-00805748, HAL.
    18. Giovanni Marin & Alessandro Palma, 2015. "Technology invention and diffusion in residential energy consumption. A stochastic frontier approach," IEFE Working Papers 81, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    19. Theo Lynn & Pierangelo Rosati & Antonia Egli & Stelios Krinidis & Komninos Angelakoglou & Vasileios Sougkakis & Dimitrios Tzovaras & Mohamad Kassem & David Greenwood & Omar Doukari, 2021. "RINNO: Towards an Open Renovation Platform for Integrated Design and Delivery of Deep Renovation Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, May.
    20. Marin, Giovanni & Palma, Alessandro, 2017. "Technology invention and adoption in residential energy consumption," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 85-98.
    21. Martinsson, Johan & Lundqvist, Lennart J. & Sundström, Aksel, 2011. "Energy saving in Swedish households. The (relative) importance of environmental attitudes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5182-5191, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:53:y:2013:i:c:p:159-168. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.