Cogeneration system acceptance in the hotel industry: A qualitative study

Abstract

This research note explored the attitudes of hotel management personnel towards using cogeneration systems and applied a qualitative approach to discover the underlying reasons for their use and non-use of cogeneration systems. A total of 40 individual interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data and analysed with three-step coding. A grounded theory model was developed to elucidate the use and non-use of cogeneration systems. Results showed that hotel management personnel held an overall positive attitude towards using cogeneration systems; this attitude was related to usefulness, importance, convenience and efficiency. Moreover, a negative attitude towards using cogeneration systems related to challenge and reluctance to changes was reported. The factors that influenced the use and non-use of cogeneration systems among hotel management personnel included utilitarian outcomes, environmental awareness, trust, government facilitators, technological barriers, perceived cost, risk perception and situational influence. Policy implications for increasing the use of cogeneration systems in the hotel industry were discussed.