This thesis aims to shed light on the adoption of eco-innovations. The purpose is to discover what cognitive, affective and normative factors motivate the adoption of the CitiCAP application, a mobile application designed for personal cap-and-trade.
The theoretical framework of the study includes three theories from behavioral sciences: the diffusion of innovation, the theory of planned behavior and the value-belief-norm theory. Based on the previous studies on eco-innovation adoption, altogether 12 hypotheses are set.
The empirical part consists of an online questionnaire targeted to active users of the CitiCAP application. The response rate of the study is 18,8 %, and the collected data is analyzed using SPSS statistical analysis program.
In order to create a better understanding of the relationships between the different variables, the collected data is analyzed with mediation and regression analyses.
The results differ from the ones of previous literature, and most of the hypotheses are rejected. However, the present study focuses on researching the actual adoption behavior instead of interest for adoption or intention to adopt as the previous studies, which might have an impact on the results. For instance, the attitude-behavior gap might be affecting the adoption.
The main findings are that both monetary and informational relative advantage have a direct positive impact on the adoption. Personal norms are found to have indirect impact on the adoption through positive anticipated feelings. In addition, there is found support that descriptive norms are having a direct negative impact on eco-innovation adoption. Also, the results find proof that ascribed responsibility has a direct positive impact on personal norms.
Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are presented. Besides, the limitations of the present study and suggestions for further research are discussed
