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The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy such as solar energy is difficult and requires significant ongoing public policy marketing initiatives. Drawing on institutional theory, this paper aims to explore how public policy marketing initiatives through institutional narratives and discourses legitimize solar energy's sustainable consumption in a developing economy.

Using a post-structuralist approach, the authors undertook a thematic analysis to study the process of sustainable consumption. The authors conducted face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders in the solar energy sector and complemented the primary data with secondary analysis of archived published materials and podcasts.

First, narratives on conformance rules and regulations (regulatory legitimacy) are significant sustainable consumption predictors of solar energy. However, the top-down regulatory legitimation narrative alone is insufficient to overcome poorly developed taken-for-granted (cognitive legitimacy) and morally correct consumption behavior (normative legitimacy), especially among the general population. Second, while consumption is primarily seen as a micro-level, residential and commercial customers phenomenon, the intersecting macro- (government) and meso-levels' (industry/market) narratives and discourses influence and direct micro-level consumption.

Future research agenda on legitimizing the sustainable consumption of solar energy needs to consider the dynamic interactions of institutional narratives and discourses through the lens of institutional theory and practice. Sustained, bold and provident government interventions and actions through market structure and policy issues play a crucial role in the consumption process, particularly in developing economies.

This study aims to examine the effect of the different forms of attitudes on the behavioural intentions to adopt solar energy technologies (SETs) in Uganda. Although commonly examined, the effect of attitudes on people’s behavioural intentions to adopt SETs ought to be more distinctively examined to have a clear picture of how each of the identified sets of attitudes influences the adoption of SETs.

Based on a sample of 360 households from three urban districts in Uganda sampled using a multi-stage sampling technique, data were collected using a self-administrated structured questionnaire. The data were then analysed using partial least square–structural equation model with SmartPLS 3.0 software.

The study establishes that more specific attitudes affect behavioural intentions to adopt SETs than general pro-technology attitudes. Results reveal that both pro-environment and application-specific attitudes matter for behaviour intentions to adopt SETs amongst households. However, the general pro-technology attitudes are not significantly associated with behavioural intentions to adopt SETs.

The results are important for producers and promoters of solar technology to craft appropriate promotion campaigns intended to increase the acceptance and usage of SETs. This means focussing on creating positive attitudes specific to particular applications and popularising specific uses of solar technologies.

The study provides an alternative approach to the general representation of the attitudes–intentions relationships by examining the differences in the attitudes developed towards the different aspects of these technologies as a substantial source of variations in adoption behaviour, which is rarely addressed.

Strategic management, sustainable development, business economics, construction management, energy management.

Undergraduate and Master's level business and management programmes with a focus on environmental or strategic management.

Fewer than two percent of Guinea Bissau's rural households had access to electricity from the grid. Efforts by the state monopoly to improve that figure by expanding the grid have had little effect, in part because the rural population was sparse. Central Electronics Limited, a public sector based company in India, was assigned to develop economic solar systems as a safe and eco-friendly substitute for the diesel gensets under IBSA (a trilateral, developmental initiative among India, Brazil, and South Africa) with the help of United Nations Development Program. The case provides an opportunity to examine the strategy of a small and poor nation to meet the needs of modern energy sources needed for improvement in health, education, transportation, and commercial development. The case focuses on Guinea Bissau's use of a trilateral partnership to achieve its rural electrification objectives despite several push backs.

Students will demonstrate ability to analyse, comprehend, and evaluate the essence of solar energy as an alternate for costly grid energy in the initial stage of development. It will also provide students to converse with the specific advantages of solar systems over conventional power generating systems and construct a novel solution that serves the needs of various stakeholders at the bottom of the income pyramid.

Teaching note.

In a growing atmosphere of mistrust of many transnational corporations, there is a recognized need for holding them accountable. The world community has often been betrayed by corporations which make decisions affecting the lives of many, but concentrate the power of decision making in the hands of a few individuals. Those whose lives are affected by these decisions are seldom consulted, and have sometimes met with disastrous results. There is a need for restructuring the decision‐making process of transnational corporations. Decision‐making must become more decentralized and democratic. Governments and local communities must be actively included in this process where it concerns the public welfare in order to balance the profit motive of business with human needs and interests. Corporate managers are judged too heavily on criteria which hinge on profit margins and are often forced to compromise their better judgement by the severely hierarchical corporate structure. Corporate management needs to adopt new performance criteria in order to be more responsible towards the public which it is supposed to serve.

Saving energy is an essential issue in the world to attenuate climate change. To achieve the goal, energy-saving appliances such as refrigerators should be promoted. This study aims to analyze the conditions enabling Japanese households to purchase such appliances, focusing on the relation with preferences for renewable energy as one of the non-monetary incentives.

A conjoint analysis is used. A random parameter logit model and nested logit model are used for estimation. Data were collected through an online questionnaire of the Rakuten Insight service.

Households will purchase energy-saving appliances when renewable energy is used for electricity generation. This implies that households will purchase energy-saving appliances with electric power generators by renewable energy such as solar panels and home micro-wind generators.

The response rate and attributes of respondents and non-respondents are not shown to researchers in the web-questionnaire service.

Promoting energy-saving appliances and renewable energy is essential in Japan (as in other countries) to save energy and to attenuate climate change. Based on the results, both energy-saving appliances and renewable energy will be widely used.

Although many studies have analyzed households’ preferences for energy-saving appliances and the effects of non-monetary incentives, studies that mentioned the relation with preferences for renewable energy are few. This study analyzes the relation and proposes policy recommendations to promote both energy-saving appliances and renewable energy.

In the wake of the December 2015 Paris COP21 (Conference of Parties), and India's announced renewable energy commitments, Reliance Power is reviewing its renewable energy investments to arrive at a long term strategy for the role of renewable energy in its power generation portfolio and the financing of renewable projects. The case reviews the Indian government's policies to promote renewable energy; the evolution of the renewable energy sector; and Reliance Power's financing of renewable energy investments. The case requires identification of alternative long term strategies and their financing implications. This case serves as an introduction to renewable energy from the perspective of Reliance Power, a large private power generator of the country. These projects also provide a learning opportunity for Reliance Power to deal with fast evolving renewable technologies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the growing trend of power outages in Ghana and the possible diffusion of a solar solution from the solar technologies; it also seeks to ascertain whether people in Ghana as well as developing countries would resort to renewable energy because of its “greenness”.

A focus group study was used, aimed at investigating the right parameters to be put in place for an effective diffusion of solar solutions in developing countries and, this instance, Ghana.

Results from the interviews of sampled respondents selected from different regions of the country indicated that many Ghanaians consider solar energy as the best alternative. However, it was a matter of affordability, financing and accessibility. Supplementary discussion into the benefits of resorting to “greenness” of solar energy, which seems not to be of major concern to potential users in Ghana, is highlighted. Moreover, making solar energy accessible in Ghana and the related market‐marketing conditions of the solutions are addressed. Based on the findings, a comprehensive examination of the reasons behind the slow adaptation of solar energy as an alternative is addressed. The alternative solar solutions identified include: standalone; backup and hybrid.

The study can be seen as the first in a series of attempts to understand the energy crisis in Ghana. The paper is aimed at promoting awareness of renewable energy solutions and its potential for helping the country to achieve a balanced economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential of renewable energy as an essential future energy source in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. This paper summarizes the main projects and measures established to start the transition toward renewable energy. The opportunities and challenges for developing renewable energy projects have been discussed to reach a better understanding of the future of renewable energy in the region.

The paper provides a literature-based study on the status of the renewable energy sector in the GCC, including potentials, projects, targets and strategies. The opportunities and challenges of the development of renewable energy sources in the GCC region have been discussed based on the literature.

The paper shows that the GCC countries have begun to adopt a more proactive approach toward renewable energy, while the reorientation of strategies and plans for renewable energy is evolving in these countries. All of the GCC countries focus on solar and wind energies and plan to invest in waste-to-energy (WtE), while only Saudi Arabia is interested in going for geothermal.

The paper contributes to the provision of an extensive literature review on the development of renewable energy in the GCC countries. It provides an updated and comprehensive overview of the region’s renewable energy potential and highlights the main renewable energy strategies and targets. This paper targets regional decision-makers as well as multilateral stakeholders to formulate a set of recommendations to promote renewable energy deployment and improve industrial capabilities.

This study aims to examine the effects of policy incentives and cost on the choice and use of renewable energy in North-Central Nigeria.

The data for this study are collected from a sample of 290 respondents drawn from across 6 states in North-Central Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory. This study uses descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression to analyze the data.

The findings reveal that there is a huge potential demand for renewable energy sources (particularly solar photovoltaic) in the rural communities in Nigeria. It also indicates a positive and highly significant relationship between the level of awareness, availability and income and the use (consumption) of renewable energy sources among the rural communities. Furthermore, the cost of installation and maintenance of renewable energy, its reliability and availability are significant determinants of renewable energy choices among rural inhabitants in Nigeria.

The authors submit that inefficient policy strategies, high cost of installation and lack of awareness remain the major hindrances to the use of more efficient renewable energy sources. From a policy point of view, a viable strategy for effective use of renewable energy sources is the involvement of government, development partners and agencies for the funding of renewable energy technology in the rural sector of the country. The usage of modern renewable energy would increase if policy incentives are aimed at covering parts of the maintenance and installation cost of renewable energy users. The authors recommend that apart from creating awareness on the benefits of renewable energy, policymakers should provide a desirable policy environment for private energy firms to supply renewable energy at an affordable cost to the rural communities in Nigeria.

A majority of the rural households in Nigeria, as shown in this article, are poor and therefore use firewood as their main source of cooking energy because of the cost of renewable energy.

Despite the abundance of renewable energy sources and government effort at improving renewable energy use, more than 15 million people live without access to electricity and 54 million are without modern energy services for cooking and lightening in Nigeria. A total of 61% of these people live in rural areas. Therefore, this study is novel in providing energy policy insights for rural communities in North-Central Nigeria.

The challenges and factors of household adoption and the use of alternative energy sources have been a point of discussion among researchers. The purpose of this study is to apply a variant of the unified theory of adoption and use of technology (i.e. UTAUT 2) to explore the effect of various constructs that influence technology adoption on the consumers’ intention to adopt (and use) solar power generators (SPG) at the household level and the subsequent switching behavior.

Based on survey data collected from six cities in India (n = 1,246), factor analysis and structural equation modeling are applied for data analysis and testing the study hypotheses.

The results of the structural equation model found UTAUT constructs performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and hedonic to positively affect behavioral intentions to adopt SPG. However, facilitating conditions and perceived value was not found to affect behavioral intentions to adopt SPG. Behavioral intentions to adopt SPG was found to positively influence the switching behavior.

The present study augments the domain of alternative energy usage behavior by applying the UTAUT 2 in the adoption of alternative energy sources (namely, solar) and subsequent switching behavior from traditional sources at the household level.

The findings from the present study will guide the marketers and policymakers on the consumer attitudinal and behavioral aspects of solar energy usage at the household level and subsequent switching behavior.

The present study is novel as it moves beyond household-level behavioral intention to use solar energy and includes the switching behavior to shift to solar power from traditional energy sources.