The determinants of the intentions to adopt energy efficient technology (eet) in the Sabah Palm Oil Industry

• Main Author: Lee, Kim Huat
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: TA170-171 Environmental engineering
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41453/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41453/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41453/

Among the many sustainable development agenda, producing sustainable energy is an ongoing dilemma for most country including Malaysia. Throughout Malaysia, more than 90 percent of the electricity generated is from coal and natural gas collectively. Realizing this, The United Nation introduced the 2030 agenda which listed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in which one of the goal is to provide access to affordable and clean energy. This study came up with a framework for the intentions to adopt Energy Efficient Technology (EET) in the Palm Oil industry in Sabah, which is one of the state in Malaysia. The Technological, Organizational and Environmental (TOE) model was used as the main theory to test the proposed relationship. This study consisted of 15 exogenous latent variables and one endogenous variable. The Sustainable Technological elements consisted seven latent variables, which are perceived compatibility, perceived relative advantage, perceived affordability, perceived production quality, perceived product quality, perceived service quality and perceived accessibility. The Organizational elements consisted of two latent variables, which are top management support and social responsibilities. In the Environmental context, there are another two latent variables, which were perceived competitive pressure and environment openness. Finally, the Individual elements consisted of two latent variables, which were manager’s innovativeness and empowerment. Knowledge of Sustainability and Knowledge of Technology acted as the moderator effect. This research applied a quantitative approach that uses a cross-sectional questionnaire survey base in order to test all the proposed hypotheses. A total of 101 palm oil mills under the state of Sabah were finalized as the sample for this study. Partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modeling (SEM) tool were used to examine the relationship between the variable. It also measured the moderating effect of knowledge of sustainability and knowledge of Technology on the adoption of EET.The model managed to provide some important findings, such as manager’s innovativeness was found to be the most influential predictor towards EET adoption and the second most important predictor is empowerment. Both of this predictor were from the individual characteristics and popular among scholars, individual characteristics completes the missing link of the TOE framework. The influence of perceived relative advantage was found to be the weakest but significant factor towards EET adoption. Furthermore, this study also found that higher manager innovativeness promotes higher intention to adopt EET. Findings were useful for theory and knowledge where it was empirically proved that future TOE framework model must not ignore the individual context as they are the real agent in knowledge processes in understanding adoption intention. Also, in terms of practise wise, manager with high level of innovativeness was found to help contribute towards the progress of sustainable technology in the palm oil industry.