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Sustainable development and consumption: The role of trust for switching towards green energy
Author(s) -
Mezger Andrea,
Cabanelas Pablo,
LópezMiguens Mª. Jesús,
Cabiddu Francesca,
Rüdiger Klaus
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.2599
Subject(s) - reputation , electricity , structural equation modeling , consumption (sociology) , business , sample (material) , marketing , german , sustainable development , work (physics) , industrial organization , sociology , mechanical engineering , social science , statistics , chemistry , mathematics , archaeology , chromatography , political science , law , electrical engineering , history , engineering
This paper develops a model that helps to explain the switching behaviour of private consumers towards green electricity suppliers. It is built upon neo‐institutional and neo‐behavioural theories, including a series of antecedents of trust as reputation, perceived environmental impact, the propensity to trust and perceived risk. This model is applied through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to a sample of 787 German electricity consumers. Results demonstrate that trust has a direct influence on switching behaviour towards a green electricity supplier. Furthermore, reputation, perceived environmental impact, propensity to trust and perceived risk influence the switching behaviour of electricity suppliers through trust as mediating variable. It draws a co‐habitation of neo‐institutional and neo‐behavioural theories in the construction of trust and the necessity to work on reducing consumers uncertainties.