Do customers’ personal attributes matter in the adoption of wood pellet heating?

Abstract

Climate change and the continuous need for energy has influenced the developing of bioenergy technologies. Wood pellet heating is a rather new potential for sustaining heating technology of domestic households. However, adopting pellet heating systems has been rather slow in Finland. The diffusion and adoption of the pellet heating system has been studied earlier but only scant attention has been given to the personal attributes in influencing adoption decisions. The main purpose of this article is to empirically study the attributes of residential customer segments. Theoretically the paper is based on the innovation decision theory and sequence of customer segments adopting technological innovations in different phases of the product life cycle. The empirical material consists of inquiries (n=154) canvassed in the Hameenlinna Housing Expo Finland in summer 2007. The results show the significance of the gender and age in adoption of pellet heating. The managerial implications and future research avenues are also discussed.