A knowledge management approach to promote an energy culture in higher education

ABSTRACT

This document presents a Knowledge Management (KM) model aimed at promoting a strong energy culture regarding Saving and Efficient Use of Energy (SEUE) in higher education students. A survey was carried out and the analysis revealed a significant association between the study subjects’ prior tacit knowledge about SEUE and their KM situation and attitudes about it. We have also used factor analysis as a statistic technique to extract latent variables from the ones already existing. The findings suggest the design and use of didactic materials and educational strategies that promote training and development practices in the context of an effective and transparent knowledge transfer process, as well as individual practices in the change of energy use behaviour. The educational strategies must prevent previously inherited beliefs from distorting the new necessary knowledge, i.e., the tacit knowledge higher education students must acquire, assimilate and disseminate to strengthen a culture of SEUE.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge management
• energy saving
• higher education
• factor analysis
• educational strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología [686216/581498] and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California.