Abstract
Motivating individuals to engage in transformative behaviors aimed to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change seizes to be a large challenge of environmental social science. In particular, in remains unclear how to best promote the uptake of novel, digital technologies when it comes to efficient energy management. To contribute to this challenge, the present Perspective investigates factors associated with energy customers’ interest in smart meters, based on an exploratory pilot field experiment in Germany (n = 4,147 clients of a German energy firm). Specifically, we set up an online field experiment and vary the arguments emphasized towards its actual customers (medium to large customers) that speak in favor of using a smart meter in an advertising campaign initiated by the firm. We find that customers are particularly interested in the technology when they learn that it may enable them to realize savings (as compared to environmental, technological or legal reasons). This result crucially adds to contrary results emphasizing moral (i.e., environmental) motives, suggesting that it may be detrimental to shift focus away from financial motives when promoting digital technologies in the energy market, particular among medium to large consumers of energy.
Highlights
The digitalization shapes many parts of our lives and is likely one of the most important developments for the economy of the future [1,2]
As our field experiment uniquely focuses on behavioral measures without any additional de mographic variables, the main experimental outcome is the behavioral heterogeneity depending on the experimentally varied “framing”
In an explorative field experiment involving about 4000 clients of a German energy supplier, this Perspective provides results from an exploratory field experiment and support for the efficacy of a “savings framing” when it comes to increasing uptake of smart metering
Summary
The digitalization shapes many parts of our lives and is likely one of the most important developments for the economy of the future [1,2]. Economic innovations targeting consumer behavior such as dynamic pricing require smart grids [9] and, smart grids may facilitate the inclusion of volatile renewables into the energy mix [10] Despite these potential advantages, many consumers remain reluc tant, disinterested, or even suspicious when it comes to the adoption of digital technologies in their personal environment [11]. Motivating individual consumers to adopt the tech nology is a central research challenge in an effort to reap the full scope of the current technological potential to mitigate climate change This Perspective contributes to this challenge and reports on an explorative field experiment in collaboration with a German energy supplier.
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