The role of social norms in incentivising energy reduction in organisations

Peter Bradley (), Matthew Leach and Shane Fudge
Additional contact information
Peter Bradley: University of the West of England, Bristol
Matthew Leach: University of Surrey
Shane Fudge: University of Surrey

Working Papers from Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol

Abstract: This study was part of a collaborative trial for an energy feedback intervention, providing detailed individual desk based energy feedback information to help individuals reduce energy in an office environment. Although the intervention was individually based, this paper explores the social context in which the intervention took place, and in particular attempted to measure changes in normative influence (descriptive and injunctive norms) around specific energy services, before and after the intervention. Results from the study identified that social norms around certain energy services changed as a result of the intervention, and the level of descriptive norms was found to have an effect on the energy efficiency of participants. Additionally interviews which were carried out during the study are insightful in helping understand how norms emerge and spread with the influence of social context and related factors. Interviews indicate strong interactions between technologies/technology policy and social context. The findings are highly relevant in the current age of fast paced technology change where businesses and governments often make decisions on what ICT technologies shall be introduced and used (such as smart metering), without fully considering the two way relationship between these technologies and social context.

Keywords: social norms; social context; organization; CSR; environmental; energy; demand response; smart metering; behaviour; descriptive norms; injunctive norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q41 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/faculties/BBS/BUS/Research/E ... pers%202014/1404.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwe:wpaper:20141404

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jo Michell ().