Effects of trust and perceived benefits on consumer adoption of smart grid technologies: a mediation analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACTEnd-customers are expected to play an increasingly important role in the future of smart grids. However, customer adoption of smart grid technologies has been hindered by a lack of trust in the energy sector. This study investigates the relationships between customer trust in companies in the energy sector, the perceived benefits of smart grid technologies and customer intention to use smart grid technologies. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of Finnish households, and using structural equation modelling, examined the effects of competence-based trust, integrity-based trust, perceived financial benefits and perceived environmental benefits. Our results show that trust, perceived benefits, and usage intention are positively associated with each other. Neither competence-based nor integrity-based trust had a direct effect on usage intentions, indicating that the effects of trust on usage intentions are fully mediated by perceived benefits. Therefore, increasing customer trust in can indirectly improve the adoption of smart grid technologies.

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