How Measurements “Affect” the Importance of Social Influences on Household’s Photovoltaic Adoption—A German Case Study

Ingo Kastner and Inga Wittenberg
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Ingo Kastner: Department of Environmental Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
Inga Wittenberg: Department of Personality and Social Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-12

Abstract: Investment determinants on residential photovoltaic (PV) in Germany were measured via questionnaire. The survey covered social influences in terms of injunctive and descriptive norms, and economic, ecological and autarkic motives for the investment. Descriptive norms were more relevant for the investment decisions than injunctive norms, but both were considerably less important than all of the other three investment motives. Additionally, we observed the actual distribution of PV systems in the participants’ living area; we gathered the observation data on PV distribution from governmental databases. We found survey data on descriptive and objective norms and observation data to be unrelated. These findings indicate that multiple approaches are necessary to assess the relevance of social influences reliably.

Keywords: social influences; energy-relevant investment decisions; measurement problems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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