Influence of innovation attributes with preventive nature of innovation on intent to adopt: the case of photovoltaic systems in mass markets

Diffusion studies have focused in multiple areas of innovation and innovations have been given various classifications. However, a type of innovation that is not widely covered in diffusion studies yet and which is relevant for multiple contemporary applications is the preventive innovation. Preventive innovations are those that individuals adopt to reduce the probability of an unwanted event in the future or to mitigate the severity of the consequences of an unwanted event. In this study we explored if the preventive nature of innovations had an influence over the intent to adopt the innovation through a survey study. In our study, photovoltaic systems were identified as preventive innovations as they serve various underlying goals of prevention. The dependent variable, intent to adopt, was identified as “period when the respondent is planning to purchase a photovoltaic system” and independent variables were either demographic, household-related or based on diffusion of innovations theory. We ran a statistical analysis with our survey responses and it yielded three linear regression models out of which one (Model 2) was selected as the best fit. The selected model identifies four significant variables associated with the intended period of PV system adoption: one related to relative advantage, one related to social compatibility and two related to technical compatibility. Our results do not confirm that preventive nature of innovations would be important to mainstream customers and hence, we derive that prevention-specific attributes merit further investigation with other adoption groups as well.