There is an emerging market of radical eco-innovations that require high involvement from the U.S. consumer for successful routinization. Yet, there exists a gap in knowledge that guides the dissemination of such innovations for related stakeholders. Among these innovations is the household digester (HD), which is marketed as an innovation capable of generating biogas and fertilizer through processing organic waste at its point-of-source (POS). The HD may surpass other high-involvement eco-innovations in respect to levels of involvement necessary for consumer routinization and sustained operation. However, previously unexplored factors within the contemporary U.S. landscape have spurred recent growth in HD adoption. This dissertation took a three-manuscript approach in the investigation of factors that influence the adoption and diffusion of HD in the U.S.
The first of three studies tested a literature-based conceptual model framed within the multi-level perspective (MLP) to identify barriers and drivers of HD adoption. Qualitative data from expert interviews and social media posts inform the production of a taxonomy of complexities that depict the current state of HD in the U.S. Findings indicate that HD marketing during the Covid pandemic brought forth new adopter populations seeking resilience due to infrastructure distrust.
The second study investigated motivations for HD adoption through operationalizing constructs from psychology literature and diffusion of innovation theory (DOI). Through in-depth interviews with adopters, the factors of relative advantage, compatibility, and cost were found to outweigh pro-environmental behavior (PEB) in adoption decisions. Furthermore, high-involvement was not found to influence adoption decisions.
The final study employed a collective case study approach that explored paths to HD routinization among ten adopters. Results highlight the ability of adopters to overcome technical challenges through reinventions necessary for contextual adaptations. This dissertation contributes insights into the adoption and diffusion of radical high-involvement eco-innovations, offering implications for policy, practice, and future research in emerging innovations interacting within socio-technical transitions. / Doctor of Philosophy / A variety of emerging products are entering the U.S. consumer market that promote household sustainability, many of which require high levels of involvement from consumers for successful adoption. These high-involvement eco-innovations have been studied within the context of electric cars, organic foods, and other products that require extensive consumer research before purchase. However, this research focuses on a new product entering the U.S. market where involvement not only requires extensive pre-purchase research but also radical levels of interaction during operation and maintenance for successful product use. The household anaerobic digester is an apparatus that turns organic waste into cooking fuel and fertilizer. This innovation has been widely adopted in the developing world with some success, but technical issues during operation have been shown to result in discontinued use.
This dissertation focuses on the adoption of household digesters in the U.S. Radical high-involvement eco-innovations need further scientific analysis to understand what factors might affect adoption, as well as explore the viability of such products entering a market where convenience is a social norm. This research aims to provide an analysis of this phenomenon through three studies.
Chapter Two explores this new product and factors that may hinder or accelerate adoption in the U.S. Experts in the field of household digesters are interviewed for data collection, as well as analysis of social media posts where new adopters share information. This study aims to determine the social and technical complexities of Americans adopting household digesters.
The Third Chapter assesses the purchase motivations of current adopters of household digesters in the U.S. This assessment takes place through interviews, where consumers provide information about their traits, values, and the degree to which they use the product to replace an existing technology.
Chapter Four takes a further look at adopters to gain an understanding of paths to adoption and commonly shared practices that are employed to be successful in the adoption of household digesters. This study first presents the stories of each adopter and then provides a cross-case analysis that reveals commonalities of adopters regarding how paths to adoption often lead to shared practices for successful HD operation.
The work is summarized in Chapter Five with conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations for future research. This includes drawing connections between the three studies' findings and how the studies' chronology brought forth validation in the instruments used for data collection.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119361 |
| Date | 07 June 2024 |
| Creators | Dowell, Zachary David |
| Contributors | Myers-Lawson School of Construction, Pearce, Annie R., McCoy, Andrew Patton, Chambers, Benjamin Daniel, Iorio, Josh |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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