Determining the Influencing Factors of Biogas Technology Adoption Intention in Pakistan: The Moderating Role of Social Media

Zanxin Wang, Saqib Ali, Ahsan Akbar and Farhan Rasool
Additional contact information
Zanxin Wang: School of Business and Tourism Management, and School of Development Studies, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Saqib Ali: Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (Sahiwal Campus), Sahiwal 57000, Pakistan
Ahsan Akbar: International Business School, Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510080, China
Farhan Rasool: Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (Sahiwal Campus), Sahiwal 57000, Pakistan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: Environmental degradation and rapid climate change have forced researchers and practitioners to find sustainable practices to save the world. Increasing energy demand is not only consuming scarce natural resources, but also damaging the climate and overall ecosystem. In this regard, biogas technology is beneficial in two ways—by meeting the energy demand and saving natural resources. Pakistan is an agricultural country and has a high potential for producing energy through biogas technology. Therefore, this study aims to find farmers’ intentions of adopting biogas technology in Pakistan by employing the extended norm activation model. Furthermore, the moderating role of social media was explored. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from farmers and results were extracted by using Partial least square structural equation modelling software. The results suggest that awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, environmental concern and perceived consumer effectiveness positively and significantly influence personal norms of the farmers. Consequently, personal norms affect farmers’ intentions of adopting biogas technology in Pakistan. The moderating role of social media was also confirmed by the results. This study considers the notable insights of biogas technology adoption in Pakistan. Finally, the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: renewable energy; biogas technology; norm activation model; social media; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2311/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2311/ (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:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2311-:d:338628

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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