How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers

Sylwia Słupik, Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz and Joanna Trzęsiok
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Sylwia Słupik: Department of Social and Economic Policy, University of Economics in Katowice, 1 Maja 50, 40-287 Katowice, Poland
Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz: Department of International Economic Relations, University of Economics in Katowice, 1 Maja 50, 40-287 Katowice, Poland
Joanna Trzęsiok: Department of Economic and Financial Analysis, University of Economics in Katowice, 1 Maja 50, 40-287 Katowice, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-25

Abstract: Ongoing climate change and increasing energy consumption are becoming a serious threat to international development efforts. To ensure a secure and sustainable future, local, national and regional authorities, as well as energy companies, need to be involved in improving energy efficiency and promoting rational energy use. The consumer is always at the centre of interest of policy and energy reduction strategies makers. It is their behaviour, motives and beliefs that can lead to optimised and economical energy management. This paper responds to the need to identify the individual preferences of energy consumers. The presented research fills an existing gap in the literature by analysing the strength of the influence of different types of instruments and external stimuli shaping pro-environmental attitudes of consumers of different behavioural types. The analysis presented in this paper is the result of the next stage of the authors’ research on energy consumers modelling, their segmentation and comprehensive characteristics. The analysis was conducted on a representative sample of N = 4332 respondents from 8 European countries (Czech Republic, France, Greece, Spain, Germany, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom). The study used multivariate statistical methods, such as: Correspondence Analysis, Factor Analysis and Kruskal-Wallis test. These methods are adequate to the assumptions of the research procedure and allowed for the identification of 4 latent factors that link the incentives into groups, where the motivation to save energy is based on: information (“Information and Knowledge”), social norms (“Social Influence”), investment funding (“Investments”) and energy price changes (“Energy Price”). In addition, the level of effectiveness of the studied incentives and motivators depends on the behavioural type of energy consumers and increases with rising levels of their intrinsic pro-environmental motivation.

Keywords: behavioural energy consumer segmentation; European consumers; energy consumption; energy efficiency; home energy management; energy saving incentives; multivariate statistical analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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