Unlocking the potential of the smart metering technology: How can regulation level the playing-field for new services in smart grids?

By integrating a communications system with the existing power grid, smart grids provide end-to-end connectivity. This enables all entities and components integrated in the electricity supply system to exchange information without knowing the network's structure. New services and applications such as demand response or virtual power plants that will aid to improve and optimize the use of electricity depend on the availability of a smart grid communication network. End-to-end communication networks require that the missing communications gap between consumers' premises and the remaining energy network is bridged by deploying an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Given the current liberalized electricity markets' structure incumbent distribution system operators (DSOs) will control the AMI and the meter data. This gives rise to concerns about anti-competitiveness. We argue that leveraging the AMI in a social welfare maximizing way requires non-discriminatory access for all entitled parties to the (1) AMI and the (2) meter data through (3) interoperable standards. We discuss possible regulatory remedies to ensure a level playing-field for innovative services in smart grids and consider implications for research and regulation. --Regulation,Smart Grid,Smart Meter,Antitrust

The Difference Of Determinants Of Mobile Data Services’ Adoption And Continuance – A Longitudinal Study

The diffusion of mobile data services (MDS) has been growing tremendously since 2007. Owing to the ubiquity and usability of multipurpose information appliances (MIA) such as smartphones, MDS have permeated every walk of life of many people. Using MIA allow users to access MDS anytime and anywhere to satisfy utilitarian, hedonic, and social needs. Hence, MDS can provide both instrumental (e.g., productivity) and inherent (e.g., entertainment) value. To date little research exists about the changes in adoption and usage behavior over time and the differences in the factors influencing people in the pre- or post-adoption stage. The present study addresses these gaps. To validate the research model the paper builds upon data collected from 1,342 students in 2008 which will be questioned again in the course of the present study. It is expected that the findings will help refining researchers’ understanding regarding the differences of determinants influencing users and non-users

How CIOs Influence Digital Transformation Success. Evidence from a Large-scale, Multi-national Survey

Digital transformation is an important and omnipresent topic for corporations that want to stay relevant and survive in today’s business environment. The success of digital transformation depends on a multitude of factors, one of which is digital transformation governance. This study investigates the moderating effect of CIO membership in the top management team on the relationship between enabling factors of digital transformation and digital transformation success. Furthermore, different digital transformation governance configurations are investigated regarding their effect on the success of digital transformation. We make use of a large scale, multi-national survey among manufacturing firms to answer these two research questions. With our study, we demonstrate the importance of including the CIO in the top management team to take advantage of existing resources and capabilities. Additionally, we show that firms with a CIO being responsible for digital transformation perform significantly better in their digital transformation endeavors

Why Deterrence is not enough: The Role of Endogenous Motivations on Employees’ Information Security Behavior

Information systems security (ISS) is an increasingly critical issue for companies worldwide. One major reason for information security incidents remains human error. Thus, understanding how employees’ ISS-related behavior can be influenced is a top priority (Siponen and Vance 2010). In this regard, numerous recent studies have examined the effect of deterrence mechanisms. However, the role of endogenous motivations has been largely neglected, although studies in adjacent fields have shown the effectiveness of motivational intervention strategies. We seek to close this gap by examining how endogenous motivations influence employees intention to comply with organizational ISS guidelines. Our model integrates the theory of planned behavior and the organismic integration theory. It is tested using a sample of 444 employees. The results show that when employees’ personal values and principles are congruent with ISS-related prescriptions compliance intention significantly increases. However, we find no impact on intention when employees perceive their actions as coerced

WHY ARE CONSUMERS GOING GREEN? THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS IN PRIVATE GREEN-IS ADOPTION

Globally, efforts are undertaken to promote the diffusion of Green-IS. The aim is to mitigate negative environmental impacts of IS itself and to leverage IS’ potential in the creation of environmentally sustainable societies. A particular Green-IS, essential for the intended modernization of energy systems, is the Smart Metering Technology (SMT). It facilitates demand-reduction and -shifting and is supposed to trigger behavioural and economic changes in households’ energy consumption. While technology adoption in the workplace has been studied extensively, scientific evidence as to residential settings is limited. Likewise, the IS-community has hitherto been reluctant in addressing issues regarding environmental sustainability (Melville 2010). This study aims at bridging these gaps by investigating the factors influencing private consumers’ intention to adopt Green-IS. We present a comprehensive research model which was empirically validated by employing data collected from 708 potential adopters. The model was found to explain a substantial proportion (.55) of the variance. The results implicate that apart from the major determinant attitude, intention is driven by environmental concerns and social influence. The study’s outcomes will help refining researchers’ understanding of private Green-IS adoption and will be useful for diverse stakeholders interested in encouraging SMT-adoption. Theoretical and practical implications are discusse

Is It Money Or The Environment? An Empirical Analysis of Factors Influencing Consumers’ Intention to Adopt the Smart Metering Technology

The Smart Metering Technology (SMT) is an essential building block of smart grids. It facilitates demand-reduction and -shifting and is supposed to trigger behavioral and economic changes in households’ energy consumption. While technology adoption in the workplace has been studied extensively, evidence as to residential settings is rather limited. Likewise, the IS-community has been reluctant in addressing issues regarding environmental sustainability. This study aims at bridging these gaps by investigating the factors influencing consumers’ intention to adopt the SMT. Building upon the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) we propose an interdisciplinary research model. The model was empirically tested using data collected from 284 potential adopters. The results implicate that apart from the major determinant attitude, intention is driven by secondary sources’ influence and environmental concerns. The findings will help refining researchers’ understanding of SMT-adoption and will be useful for all stakeholders interested in SMT-diffusion

Relying on storage or ICT? How to maintain low voltage grids' stability with an increasing feed-in of fluctuating renewable energy sources

Since the beginning of the new century our electricity system is changing rapidly. Distributed energy resources, such as wind or solar energies are becoming more and more important. These energies are producing fluctuating electricity, which is fed into low voltage distribution grids. The resulting volatility complicates the exact balancing of demand and supply. These changes can lead to distribution grid instabilities, damages of electronic devices or even power outages and might therefore end in deadweight losses affecting all electricity users. A concept to tackle this challenge is matching demand with supply in real-time, which is known as smart grids. In this study, we focus on two smart grids' key components: decentralized electricity storages and smart meters. The aim of this study is to provide new insights concerning the low diffusion of smart meters and decentralized electricity storages and to examine whether we are facing situations of positive externalities. During our study we conducted eight in-depth expert interviews. Our findings show that the diffusion of smart meters as well as decentralized electricity storages is widely seen as beneficial to society. This study identifies the most important stakeholders and various related private costs and benefits. As private benefits are numerous but widely distributed among distinct players, we argue that we face situations of positive externalities and thus societal desirable actions are omitted. We identify and discuss measures to foster diffusion of the two studied smart grid key components. Surprisingly, we find that direct interventions like subsidies are mostly not seen as appropriate even by experts from industries that would directly benefit from them. As the most important point, we identified well-designed and clearly defined regulatory and legal frameworks that are free of contradictions. --smart meter,decentralized electricity storage,smart grid,externality

A Unified Statistical Framework for Evaluating Predictive Methods

Predictive analytics is an important part of the business intelligence and decision support systems literature and likely to grow in importance with the emergence of big data as a discipline. Despite their importance, the accuracy of predictive methods is often not assessed using statistical hypothesis tests. Furthermore, there is no commonly agreed upon standard as to which questions should be examined when evaluating predictive methods. We fill this gap by defining three questions that involve the overall and comparative predictive accuracy of the new method. We then present a unified statistical framework for evaluating predictive methods that can be used to address all three of these questions. The framework is particularly versatile and can be applied to most problems and datasets. In addition to these practical advantages over hypotheses tests used in previous literature, the framework has the theoretical advantage that it is not necessary to assume a normal distribution

From Words to Results: The Role of IS in Bridging the Sustainability Strategy-Implementation Gap

After many years of reluctance and lack of commitment, companies are increasingly prioritizing sustainability and setting ambitious goals. Along with the rise of organizational sustainability strategy (OSS), the role of information systems (IS) in sustainability has increased and become a source of sustainability at the organizational level. Although ever more companies consider sustainability a top priority, they struggle to turn sustainability strategies into practice and observe measurable results. We followed a mixed methods approach combining qualitative interview data (n=13) and quantitative data from a multi-continental industry survey (n=551) to generate an in-depth understanding of the role of IS-enabled sustainability practices in influencing the organizational sustainability strategy-implementation gap. With our study, we demonstrate that IS-enabled sustainability practices mediate the impact of OSS on organizational sustainability performance (OSP) and that these practices are enabled by IS capabilities that are critical to implementing sustainability practices (technology intelligence, data analysis, and digital twinning capability)