Helping "light green" consumers walk the talk : Results of a behavioural intervention survey in the Swiss electricity market
Journal
Ecological Economics
ISSN
0921-8009
ISSN-Digital
1873-6106
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2011-01-15
Author(s)
Litvine, Dorian
Abstract
While many consumer surveys show very positive attitudes towards renewable energy, the share of consumers actually purchasing green electricity is still in the single-digit percent range in most countries. What can be done to help consumers with positive attitudes towards green electricity to "walk the talk", i.e. to behave consistently with their preferences? We developed a psychological model based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to design a large-scale behavioural intervention survey with 1'163 Swiss electricity consumers. Our results show that by providing information targeted at the key factors influencing the intention to purchase green electricity, namely attitudes towards purchase, social norms and perceived behavioural control, a significant increase in green electricity market share can be achieved. Our results show that price is not the only barrier to purchasing green electricity, and that information to increase the perceived benefit of buying green electricity as well as targeted communication to overcome inertia among retail electricity consumers are equally important factors
Language
English
Keywords
green power marketing
theory of planned behaviour
field experiment
willingness-to-pay
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Elsevier Science
Publisher place
Amsterdam
Volume
70
Number
3
Start page
462
End page
474
Pages
13
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
69688
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