A strategy and protocol to increase diffusion of energy related innovations into the mainstream of housing associations

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2005.10.001

Energy Policy

Volume 34, Issue 18, December 2006, Pages 4042-4049

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2005.10.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

To reduce human causes of global warming, large scale implementation of innovative products that save energy is necessary. Innovative products first reach the early market actors who are driven by a visionary attitude. Hereafter, the products must reach the much larger mainstream market whose actors are driven by a pragmatic attitude. Many innovations, however, only appeal to the visionary early market and do not meet the more pragmatic needs of the mainstream. For that reason, innovations often fall in a “chasm” between the early market and the mainstream and fail to reach the mainstream. We developed a strategy and a protocol to aid governmental agencies in influencing the mainstream members of housing associations to adopt energy conservation innovations. Our method is an adaptation of an existing marketing method and applicable to other target groups. The first step in crossing this chasm is to find a niche segment in the mainstream as the starting point for winning the rest of the mainstream. By surveying the target group and analyzing the data, we identified 29 housing associations (234 interviewed) that belong to this niche segment. Identifying the niche segment and its determinants of behaviour is part of our 4-step protocol that leads to adapting the innovative product to meet the needs of the niche and setting up a marketing plan to win the rest of the mainstream.

Introduction

In agreement with the Kyoto Protocol, the Dutch government has developed a policy to reverse human causes of climate change. This climate policy aims to reduce energy consumption and thereby reduce the emission of ${CO}_{2}$ . The Dutch government has specifically targeted the users and owners of buildings as being large energy consumers and, in 2004, set an upper limit of 29 Mton for their ${CO}_{2}$ emission for the year 2010. Against this background, the Dutch Ministry of Environmental Affairs asked SenterNovem¹ to develop an intervention strategy to change the energy-related behaviour of users and owners of buildings.

Specifically, we want to stimulate large numbers of housing associations to adopt and use new technology. Obviously, energy conservation (EC) innovations have value only when they are adopted and used. To this end, we developed an intervention strategy based on applying policy instruments that influence the specific behavioural determinants of housing associations to invest more in EC and to adopt (EC) innovations (Egmond et al., 2005a). That strategy consists of the following actions: (1) identify the behavioural determinants of adoption of the members of the target group, (2) identify the “active ingredients” in existing policy instruments—their influence on specific determinants, (3) compare the active ingredients of the policy instruments with the behavioural determinants of the target group, and (4) select a set of instruments containing active ingredients that target the behavioural determinants of the target group, thereby influencing their behaviour.

We cannot assume, however, that the behavioural change of housing associations develops homogeneously throughout the entire target group. Studies in the field of diffusion of innovations conclude that many EC innovations are adopted only by the first-adopting segment of a target group, the so-called “early market”. In other words, innovations hardly ever reach the vast majority of the target group, the so-called “mainstream market” (Silvester, 1996). Apparently the behavioural determinants of these two market segments differ in such a way that innovations do not diffuse across a “chasm” between the early market and the mainstream market. This non-homogeneity implies that to effectively apply our strategy described above, we must focus on mainstream actors.

This paper reports on a further analysis of data collected and reported in our previous study (Egmond et al., 2005a) and further develops the strategy of focusing on specific segments of target groups (Egmond et al., 2005b, Egmond et al., 2005c), and can be considered as a follow up of the research we reported earlier. This research was part of a program that developed an intervention strategy to influence the behaviour of target groups to realize EC in the built environment. And we have charted the energy-related behaviour and determinants of other target groups: owners and tenants of office buildings, and local authorities, and developed intervention strategies.

We identified the differences between the behavioural determinants of the mainstream and the early market segments of housing associations. Then, based on these differences and applying marketing theory, we present a step-by-step protocol for influencing the mainstream to invest in EC innovations. The purpose of our work reported here is twofold: (1) to further develop our strategy described above into a method to cross the chasm and influence the mainstream of housing associations to adopt EC innovations, (2) to develop a protocol that can serve as a guideline for stimulating the diffusion of energy-related innovations into the mainstream of other target groups.

To achieve these purposes, we applied the rationale that underlies the diffusion theory of Rogers, 1995, Rogers, 2003 and the marketing theory of Moore (2002). Their rationale is built on the “behaviour of specific segments of target groups” and is, therefore, directly applicable to choosing the policy instruments that most effectively change the behaviour of target groups. Simply stated, the so-called “early market” actors adopt innovations first and “mainstream market” actors follow only if their own specific needs are met. Indeed, in our earlier study, we discovered that the early market and mainstream market actors have their own specific characteristics and their behavioural determinants differ. The early market actors are more vision-driven and the mainstream market actors have a more pragmatic attitude (Egmond et al., 2005b). And these differences are the cause of the above-mentioned chasm.

According to Moore (2002), the first step in crossing this chasm is to win a niche market in the mainstream as the starting point for winning the rest of the mainstream. To win a niche market in the mainstream, with its more pragmatic needs, an innovation must be adapted to meet those needs. This, in turn, implies that we must identify a suitable niche segment and its needs. Then we must determine how innovations can be adapted to meet the needs of the niche market.

Specifically, in developing our method we (1) identified the members of a suitable niche segment within the mainstream market by analyzing the data from the survey reported in our previous article (Egmond et al., 2005a), and (2) developed a protocol to stimulate the niche segment to adopt EC innovations.

Section snippets

Theoretical considerations

Moore (2002) developed the concept of crossing the chasm based on the diffusion theory of Rogers (1995). According to Rogers, an innovation is “an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or another unit of adoption.” Diffusion of an innovation through an entire market starts with the “innovators” and “early adopters”, is eventually followed by the “early and late majority” and ends with the “laggards”. Because of differences in adoption speed, the diffusion process of

Method

Our target group of housing associations in the Netherlands totals 623 organizations. To establish the target-group-specific determinants of their energy-related behaviour we interviewed 234 of these organizations (53% of the 441 organizations approached in our study) using a questionnaire. These questionnaire-guided interviews were carried out with a computer-aided telephone interview (CATI) system. The respondents included members of the boards of directors (7.3%), chiefs of the technical

Implications for practice: a protocol to cross the chasm

To translate the findings of our research into the practice of policy development and implementation, and to speed up the diffusion of innovative products into the mainstream, we developed a protocol to cross the chasm. The protocol consists of four steps: (1) identifying the policy-desirable innovative products, (2) identifying the niche in the mainstream of the target group, (3) completing the product to satisfy the needs of the niche, and (4) setting up marketing activities. We discuss the

Conclusions and discussion

We have developed a method to cross the chasm and influence the mainstream of housing associations to adopt EC innovations. Through “self-designation”, it is possible to identify the early majority actors within the mainstream. Furthermore, with the constructed variable pragmatism it is possible to identify the most pragmatic actors within the early majority and, thus, zoom in and identify a niche. To cross the chasm, these niche actors are the first ones to target in marketing an innovative

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