How Regional Trust Cues Could Drive Decentralisation in the Energy Sector—An Exploratory Approach

Abstract

The Green Information Systems research stream was initiated by leading information systems researchers to address climate change through information and communications technology. This paper responds to a call for practical research into the design of information systems that support consumers in their decision making in favour of sustainable products. We apply an exploratory approach to improve understanding of regional trust cues in the energy sector and how these could drive the sector’s decentralisation. We explore the still emerging phenomenon of regional text and imagery on digital user interfaces via a multi-method process including quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Our findings suggest that regional energy providers systematically employ regional textual and pictorial trust cues on their websites. We further lay the ground for future experimental work on this matter by defining terms and concepts and systematically capturing design elements. We outline practical implications for designing user interfaces in the energy sector and discuss how this could drive the sector’s platformisation and sustainabilisation. In addition, we discuss implications for consumers who could become the target of regional washing attempts, in other words providers applying regional cues to create a regional company image in the absence of actual regionality.