The Antecedents and Outcomes of Energy-Conserving Behaviors Among Industrial and Commercial Prosumers of Net Energy Metering (NEM) in Malaysia

Mahyudin Nurain (), Zailani Suhaiza () and Ezlika M. Ghazali
Additional contact information
Mahyudin Nurain: Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Department of Decision Science, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Zailani Suhaiza: Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Department of Decision Science, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Ezlika M. Ghazali: Department of Management & Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-50

Abstract: Solar photovoltaic (PV) net energy metering (NEM) scheme adoption is generally known for its advantages. However, limited research has been conducted on the prosumers’ behaviors, especially in the industrial and commercial sectors. This study is exploratory and explanatory in identifying the variables; therefore, preliminary research was conducted by interviewing 15 firms and collecting 372 usable responses from the cross-sectional survey questionnaires. The conceptual framework consists of antecedents and outcomes of prosumers’ energy-conserving behaviors (PECB). The antecedent consists of theories conceptualized from the extended TOE called STOPE and institutional theory (INT), with energy-saving culture (ESC) as a moderator. Meanwhile, the outcomes include sustainable energy consumption and production (SECP) and provider–consumer relationships (PCR) as moderators. The outcomes of SECP further revealed the significant results of energy-conserving behavior on the economic, environmental, social, governance, and technical aspects of the sustainable outcome of PECB. Additionally, the findings offer a transformative power and valuable knowledge for policymakers, scholars, and stakeholders in the industry that can significantly contribute to realizing sustainable practices. Future research may explore other variable factors, theories, sampling techniques, and larger samples. Also, different analytic approaches were considered and mixed methods were used to investigate the long-term impacts of prosumers’ energy-conserving behavior patterns and overall sustainability.

Keywords: prosumer; energy; solar PV; net energy metering; prosumer behavior; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8125/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8125/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:18:p:8125-:d:1745830

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().