Cross-validation of the Biofuels Beliefs Scale (BBS) on a European sample: A tool to measure the perception of the technological and contextual features of biofuels

Abstract

Studies on the acceptance of renewable and sustainable energy technologies have grown exponentially over the past few decades. While there are a large number of technology acceptance models, none of them includes belief-related variables. Developed within the EC H2020 ABC-Salt project, this contribution focuses on the cross-validation, in a large sample (N = 1016), across eight European countries, of the Biofuels Beliefs Scale (BBS). The BBS is composed of 26 items, organized into six factors (i.e., Policy Making Legitimation, Emissions Sustainability, Global Environmental Sustainability, Technology Compatibility, Local Socio-Economic Sustainability, and Cost Savings). Factors are distinct, reliable, and each one composed of a psychometrically acceptable number of items. The validation procedure fulfilled the adequacy requirements regarding convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The BBS could be useful both for testing models on technology acceptance in future studies and for communication campaigns on biofuel-related issues in applied contexts (e.g., pre-/post-assessment, monitoring, etc.).