Research on factors influencing an individual’s behavior of energy management: a field study in China

Abstract

With the rapid rising of distributed appliance, smart home appliances and mobile Internet, smart home manufacturers in Europe and America have all developed energy management solutions for individual usage, while domestic manufacturers have also launched similar products. This technique helps people to manage their energy consumption more efficiently. This article focuses on the factors that affect energy management behavior (EMB) at the individual level. By reviewing academic literature, conducting surveys in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the author built an integrated model of the energy management of Chinese people. This article is the first to separate EMB into two types of behaviors: the more innovative energy management intention (EMI) and the more traditional energy saving intention (ESI). The author conducts statistical analysis on these two behavioral concepts. An individual’s EMB is mainly driven by EMI. EMI is affected by behavioral attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Among these three key factors, PBC has the strongest influence. This implies that the promotion of the energy management concept is mainly driven by good user experience, which is based on products’ features. The traditional ESI also demonstrates a positive influence on EMB, but its impact is weaker than those three factors of EMI. In other words, the government and manufacturers will not be able to promote individual EMB by only selling the concept of traditional energy saving. At the same time, the study finds that the government may achieve better advertising results by developing subsidy policy.

Keywords:

• energy management
• energy consumption
• energy saving attitude
• theory of planned behavior
• diffusion of innovations