Customers’ knowledge and personal attributes in promoting demand for wood pellet heating technologies

Billions of Euros are spent developing a range of green technologies, including bio-heating technologies, as part of a push into the renewable energy market. One technological alternative for an innovative domestic household is wood pellet heating system. Diffusion of wood pellet heating has been studied previously but only limited attention has been given to customer knowledge and personal attributes influencing adoption decisions. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine knowledge of this bio-energy technology and the impact of the personal attributes and perceived knowledge of the innovation on its adoption in Finland. The results support existing theoretical models and provide evidence of significance of customer knowledge and personal attributes in demand creation. Finally, the managerial implications of the results are discussed.