The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Students’ Attitudes Toward the Renewable Energy Transition: An Explanatory Study of Sultan Qaboos University Students

The renewable energy transition has become one of the vital pathways for approaching climate change and promoting sustainability. The success of this transition, however, does not depend only on technical and economic considerations, but is mainly influenced by social and institutional factors that form acceptance and support. This study aims at measuring the contribution of social capital, the awareness of the energy transition, and the institutional context in increasing the level of public support for the energy transition among Sultan Qaboos University students. It adopts a cross-sectional quantitative approach, and data are collected through a multi-section questionnaire from a sample of 437 male and female students from different colleges, majors, and academic years at Sultan Qaboos University. These tools of the study measure the dimensions of social capital: trust, social networks, bridging, institutional linking, and student participation. They also evaluate objective knowledge and self-perceived awareness of the renewable energy transition, in addition to components of the institutional context within the university: the sustainability climate on campus, opportunities for participation, and trust in governance/procedural justice. The indicators of internal consistency (reliability) also show significant values: the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients range approximately between 0.715 and 0.893 for the independent variables and reach 0.864 for the dependent variable. The results of this study show that most of the students fall within the high level of support (77.3%), with no statistically significant differences based on gender, college type, academic year, or previous volunteering experience. The ordinal logistic regression results indicate that the campus sustainability climate is the strongest factor influencing higher levels of support followed by trust in governance/procedural justice and general trust (TR). The bridging dimension (BB) does not have a significant independent influence after accounting for the other variables. This study emphasizes that increasing support for the renewable energy transition in the university environment requires strengthening an institutional climate which supports sustainability, promoting fair and transparent governance, expanding participation opportunities, and investing in building trust and strengthening institutional connections to encourage pro-sustainability behaviors.