Sustainable development and consumption: The role of trust for switching towards green energy

Andrea Mezger, Pablo Cabanelas, Mª. Jesús López‐Miguens, Francesca Cabiddu and Klaus Rüdiger

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2020, vol. 29, issue 8, 3598-3610

Abstract: This paper develops a model that helps to explain the switching behaviour of private consumers towards green electricity suppliers. It is built upon neo‐institutional and neo‐behavioural theories, including a series of antecedents of trust as reputation, perceived environmental impact, the propensity to trust and perceived risk. This model is applied through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to a sample of 787 German electricity consumers. Results demonstrate that trust has a direct influence on switching behaviour towards a green electricity supplier. Furthermore, reputation, perceived environmental impact, propensity to trust and perceived risk influence the switching behaviour of electricity suppliers through trust as mediating variable. It draws a co‐habitation of neo‐institutional and neo‐behavioural theories in the construction of trust and the necessity to work on reducing consumers uncertainties.

Date: 2020
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