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Towards sustainable consumption: Predicting the impact of social‐psychological factors on energy conservation intentions in Northern Cyprus

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  • Peter Ansu‐Mensah
  • Murad A. Bein

Abstract

The incessant demand and consumption of energy services among individuals’ is increasing throughout the world. Individuals’ electricity consumption in Northern Cyprus has risen considerably. However, the demand for electrical energy services on the island is heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels has adverse effects on its environment. Therefore, sustainable energy consumption is required and individuals are targeted for energy conservation to reduce electricity consumption. Against this background, using the Structural Equation Modeling approach, this research incorporates social‐psychological factors; personal norms, positive and negative emotions into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to assess the relationships among the variables, explain their impact on consumers’ electricity conservation intentions and enhance the explanatory power of the model. Data was conveniently obtained from a quantitative sample of 400 electricity consumers. The results indicate that negative emotions have the strongest significant influence on intentions, but personal norms have the least effect on intentions to save electricity. Furthermore, the study revealed that our expanded TPB model can provide improved explanatory power more than the original TPB. Policy implications, limitations and future research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Ansu‐Mensah & Murad A. Bein, 2019. "Towards sustainable consumption: Predicting the impact of social‐psychological factors on energy conservation intentions in Northern Cyprus," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(3), pages 181-193, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:43:y:2019:i:3:p:181-193
    DOI: 10.1111/1477-8947.12174
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