La imagen y sus sentidos

Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:304) developed hypotheses on the effects of various attitudinal and perceptual variables, as well as socio-demographic characteristics of residential electricity consumers on an individual’s WTP a mark-up for electricity generated from renewable energy sources, compared with the price due for electricity from conventional sources. Their hypotheses were tested with data from a standardised telephone survey of 238 household electricity consumers in Germany. Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:306) structured their investigated determinants of WTP for green electricity into psychological constructs and socio-demographic characteristics.

In another study of Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010b:464), they tested their hypotheses on the effects of eight attitudinal and perceptual characteristics of residential electricity consumers on their propensity to adopt a green electricity supplier. The hypotheses were tested empirically with data

generated by means of a standardised telephone survey of 267 household electricity consumers of a German regional power supplier.

Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:305) stated that the literature refers to this basic intention to accept a certain maximum mark-up for a specific service as WTP (synonyms: price acceptance, reservation price, maximum price). A specific WTP variant, which has a special relevance for pricing green electricity, is called price mark-up tolerance (PMT). According to Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:311), the five attitudinal characteristics relating to the WTP, under the psychological construct are the following:

 Attitude towards environmental protection issues;  Attitude towards one’s current electricity supplier;  Difficulty of switching one’s electricity supplier;  Household ecological conservation behaviour; and  Valuation of green energy by social reference groups.

Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:307) stated that more cognitive and less evaluative psychological determinants of WTP for green electricity include perceptions of:

 Difficulty in switching one’s electricity supplier;  Household ecological conservation behaviours;

 Evaluation of green energy by social reference groups; and  Knowledge about renewable energy sources.

Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:310) listed five socio-demographic characteristics of persons and residential households that were measured by single questions in connection with: (1) household income/financial restrictions; (2) monthly electricity bill; (3) household size; (4) age; and (5) gender. Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:315) found that the monthly electricity bill, age and financial restrictions still have a significant influence on PMT for green electricity. A low level of financial restrictions was associated with the acceptance of mark-ups of five or ten percent. They concluded from their study that household income and gender had no unique effect on the mark-up level. Gerpott and Mahmudova’s (2010b:466) motivation for the project was to gain a better understanding of the reactions of residential energy consumers in Germany to environmentally- friendly investment programmes and offerings of electric power companies. They conducted a telephone survey with a random sample of residential electricity consumers of a German regional electric power company in mid-2008 to gather the data.

The purpose of their latest study was to empirically explore factors influencing the willingness to adopt green electricity tariffs in a sample of residential energy consumers in Germany (Gerpott & Mahmudova, 2010b:465).

The remainder of their paper focused on developing propositions on significant adoption of green electricity determinants. Potential adoption of green electricity determinants may be structured into (1) supply-side factors (e.g. price level, competitive intensity in a region, certification or branding of green power offers) and (2) consumer-side variables. Their latest work focused on consumer-side variables.

A recapitulation of Gerpott and Mahmudova’s research (2010b:468) on the adoption of green electricity determinants can be summarised as follows:

 Willingness to adopt green electricity was measured by four reflective indicators derived from researchers like Bansal, Taylor and James (2005), Henseler (2006) and Kim, Shin and Lee (2006).

 Social endorsement of green energy used, was captured by two reflective indicators adopted from Bansal and Taylor (1999).

 Attitudes towards environmental protection issues were gauged reflectively through five indicators, addressing one’s valuation of environmental issues and protection activities.  Perceived difficulty of switching one’s electricity supplier was captured formatively by four

items, dealing with various monetary and psychological cost incurred by a move to another electric power company (also called electricity power producer). The indicators were derived from measures similar to those developed by Burnham, Frels and Mahajan (2003) and Henseler (2006).

 A person’s knowledge ability, concerning electricity power producer switching procedures and consequences, was tapped formatively by factual questions concerning the switching process for residential energy consumers.

 A household’s past switching experiences in various contractual goods markets, such as financial services, mobile communications or electricity, were measured formatively by the following items: probing whether respondents had changed their bank or their mobile network operator within the previous 12 months and whether they had ever switched their electricity power producer.

 Price emphasis was captured reflectively by two indicators. They were inspired by researchers like Lichtenstein and colleagues (1990) and (1) refer to the willingness of consumers to search for lower electricity prices in spite of the efforts required to detect such prices; and (2) refer to their intention to switch to another electricity power producer in the case of unfounded price increases of their current electricity power producer.

 The construct differences between electricity power producer offerings were measured by two reflective items. They were adopted from Ping (1993) and Jones, Mothersbaugh and Beatty (2000) and address perceptions concerning the dissimilarity among electricity power producers in terms of their offerings and price levels.

Table 4.4: Summary of the hypothesis test results by Gerpott and Mahmudova

Hypothesis Result

1. Social endorsement Confirmed

2. Environmental protection attitude Confirmed

3. Switching difficulty Most confirmed

4. Knowledge ability Not confirmed

5. Switching experiences Partially confirmed (LC subsample only)

6. Price emphasis Not confirmed

7. Differences between EPC offerings Not confirmed

8. EPC social responsibility Partially confirmed (LC subsample only) EPC Electric power company or Electricity power producer

LC Low level consumption subsample

Source: Gerpott and Mahmudova, 2010b:471.

Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010b:471) concluded that social endorsement, environmental protection attitude, and switching difficulty had significant influences on WTP. Switching experiences and EPC social responsibility only had partial influence, with knowledge ability, price emphases and differences between EPC offerings not indicating a significant influence on WTP. The most unexpected outcome from this study was that the price emphasis hypothesis test result was not confirmed as most literature would suggest.

Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010a:304) concluded that 53.4 percent of the participants were willing to pay a mark-up for green electricity. A price tolerance of 26.1 percent was reported, equal to a five to ten percent increase in their current electricity bill. Binary logistic and ordinal regression analyses indicated that an increased price tolerance for green electricity is particularly influenced by the following:

 Positive attitudes towards environmental issues;  Positive attitudes towards one’s current power supplier;

 Positive perceptions of the evaluation of green energy by an individual’s social reference groups;

 Smaller household size; and  Lower current electricity bill level.

These findings are used to derive suggestions for energy-related informational activities of public institutions, green marketing strategies of energy companies and future consumer research regarding demand for pro-environmental goods.

During the study of Gerpott and Mahmudova (2010b:464), they concluded that, regardless of a person’s level of actual power consumption in the recent past, the propensity to adopt green electricity is most strongly influenced by general consumer attitudes towards environmental

protection issues and social endorsement of green power used by close social contacts. They also concluded that the identification of factors influencing the adoption of green electricity offers practical implications for marketers of utilities and contributes to the academic knowledge base of a service domain, characterised by increasing societal importance.