Perceptions and beliefs influencing intention to use solar energy solutions in Zambian households

Abstract

PurposeThe study examined perceptions and beliefs that influence the intention to adopt solar energy solutions in the Zambian Housing Sector. This is important because empirical evidence for measures aimed at improving the adoption of solar energy solutions with SSA in general or a Zambian context, in particular, are largely missing from the literature.Design/methodology/approachHierarchical multiple linear regression was used to analyse quantitative data collected through an online questionnaire survey. A total of 947 valid responses were obtained from a convenient sample of household heads.FindingsThe results show that attitude towards solar energy solutions, subjective norms, perceived benefits, perceived trust, knowledge about solar energy solutions, load-shedding and social norms, in that order of magnitude, influence the intention to adopt solar energy solutions. Perceived behavioural control, perceived risk and perceived cost did not influence the intention to adopt solar energy solutions.Originality/valueThe results provide empirical evidence of important factors to drive the adoption of solar energy solutions in Zambia. The results further show that knowledge about available solar energy solutions, rather than general knowledge about renewable energy, influence the adoption intention of solar energy solutions.

A behavioral study on villagers’ adoption intention and carbon neutrality toward rooftop solar photovoltaic systems in India

“…attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavior control, have a direct positive and significant influence on villagers’ adoption intention toward the RSPV systems. This result is in line with Zulu et al (2021) and Waris et al (2022), who reported a significant impact of households’ attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on their adoption intentions toward small-scale solar energy. First, the attitude was found to have a major significant effect ( β = 0.385, p < 0.001) on villagers’ adoption intentions toward RSPV systems.…”

“…Numerous studies reveal customer attitude in the framework of adoption intentions toward solar energy (Yazdanpanah et al, 2015;Sun et al, 2020;Alam and Fathima, 2022;Bekti et al, 2022;Ahmed et al, 2022;Fathima et al, 2022), subjective norms (Masrahi et al, 2021;Alam and Fathima, 2022) and perceived behavior control (Yazdanpanah et al, 2015;Masrahi et al, 2021;Fathima et al, 2022) have a positive and significant impact on their behavioral intention to adopt rooftop solar PV systems as the source of renewable energy. In the context of Zambia and Pakistan, Zulu et al (2021) and Waris et al (2022) revealed that households' attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control significantly impact their intention toward the adoption of solar energy at a small scale. Transitioning to solar energy is crucial in achieving carbon neutrality (Dahal et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2022).…”

“…DOI theory, PMT and TPB have been used to examine the villagers’ behavioral intentions and carbon neutrality recognition toward adopting the RSPV systems. The extent of the literature reveals that the DOI theory (Gerdesics et al , 2013; Wolske et al , 2017; Kurdgelashvili et al , 2019; Mohandes et al , 2019; Busic-Sontic and Fuerst, 2018; Kowalska-Pyzalska, 2018; Bondio et al , 2018; Barrie and Cruickshank, 2017; Pathania et al , 2017; Simpson and Clifton, 2017; Wolske et al , 2017; Karakaya et al , 2015; Sriwannawita and Laestadiusb, 2015; Islam, 2014; Barnes et al , 2022; Karimzadeh and Salehi, 2021; Kumar and Kaushik, 2022; Ahmed et al , 2022), PMT (Kim et al , 2013; Bockarjova and Steg, 2014; Wolske et al , 2017; Rainear and Christensen, 2017; Wang et al , 2019; Kothe et al , 2019) and TPB (Wang et al , 2014; Li et al , 2013; Rai and Robinson, 2015; Korcaj et al , 2015; Yun and Lee, 2015; Joshi and Rahman, 2015; Yazdanpanah et al , 2015; Chen, 2016; Gao et al , 2017; Wolske et al , 2017; Shi et al , 2017; Wang et al , 2019; Abreu et al , 2019; Arroyo and Carrete, 2019; Zhang et al , 2019; Sun et al , 2020; Irfan et al , 2021; Masrahi et al , 2021; Zulu et al , 2021; Jayaratne et al , 2021; Cheam et al , 2021; Alam and Fathima, 2022; Waris et al , 2022; Bekti et al , 2022; Li et al , 2022b; Zhao et al , 2022) have been used widely in academic research to recognize the factors influencing customers’ attitude, pro-environment behavior and behavioral intentions toward renewable energy adoption, energy-saving and carbon reduction. DOI theory has explained five dimensions of innovations, i.e.…”

“…RSPV systems, which is influenced by their attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Recently, TPB has been used extensively to measure the impact of users’ attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on their behavioral intentions toward adopting solar energy as a source of renewable energy (Fathima et al , 2022; Waris et al , 2022; Alam and Fathima, 2022; Bekti et al , 2022; Jayaratne et al , 2021; Masrahi et al , 2021; Zulu et al , 2021; Wolske et al , 2017). Lastly, villagers’ adoption intentions toward solar PV systems on carbon neutrality have been measured in line with (Gunarathne et al , 2020; Ding et al , 2018), who reported that customers’ intentions significantly influence customers their low-carbon consumption behavior.…”

“…Therefore, local governments frame the policies concerning the generating and adopting of renewable energy instead of conventional energy sources to achieve carbon neutrality. Recently in the globalized scenario, well-known literature examining solar energy acceptance (Vuichard et al , 2021; Alsabbagh, 2019; Hai, 2019; Ahmad et al , 2017; Hanger et al , 2016; Wyllie et al , 2018; Liu, 2018; Guta, 2018) and adoption intentions from the social and behavioral points of view is available (Barnes et al , 2022; Li et al , 2022b; Waris et al , 2022; Shi et al , 2022; Bekti et al , 2022; Awais et al , 2022; Ahmed et al , 2022; Masrahi et al , 2021; Cheam et al , 2021; Sun et al , 2020; Zulu et al , 2021; Karimzadeh and Salehi, 2021; Irfan et al , 2021; Malik and Ayop, 2020; Arroyo and Carrete, 2019; Abreu et al , 2019; Kurdgelashvili et al , 2019; Mohandes et al , 2019; Bondio et al , 2018; Kowalska-Pyzalska, 2018; Dahal et al , 2017; Wolske et al , 2017; Reyes-Mercado and Rajagopal, 2017; Korcaj et al , 2015; Chen, 2014; Alam et al , 2014).…”