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Thesis Aurelian Mbzibain Resu An empirical investigation into the uptake, motivations and constraints and the factors affecting farmers’ renewable energy investment intentions Aurelian Mbzibain A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2012 This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body whether for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgements, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Aurelian Mbzibain to be identified as author of the work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature: Aurelian Mbzibain Date: …July 2012 1 Abstract The rate of adoption of renewable energy (RE) production and associated enterprises on- farms in the UK has been lower than expected suggesting that the UK government’s energy, agricultural and climate change objectives may not be achieved. The aim of this research is to investigate why this is the case by assessing the uptake, motivations, constraints and the factors affecting farmers’ RE investment intentions. Building on extant research literature (institutional theory, social cognition theory, theory of planned behaviour and the resource based view) a novel comprehensive and multidimensional model of entrepreneurial intentions was developed and tested using principal component, path and multivariate regression analysis techniques. Data were collected to test the model through a sample of 2000 farmers in the West Midlands Region of the UK. Of the 393 farmers who responded, 14% adopted RE enterprises, with half of adopters reporting slight to significant improvements in farm business performance in 2009. Solar panels were the most popular of the RE technologies available to farmers, compared to biomass related technologies. The study found that the most influential personal level factors contributing to the adoption of RE and associated technologies were cognitive such as the level of education. Of current 338 non-adopters, 66% might decide to invest in RE technologies over the next five years. For these potential adopters, the study shows that the type of tenure, educational attainment and the type of farm business diversification activity in which a farmer is engaged are the most significant personal and farm business situational factors which influence farmers’ RE investment intentions though contrary to expectation current non-adopters assessed the policy support framework more favourably than current adopters. The explanation of this seems to be connected with timing, in that two very positive and encouraging signals in relation to i Feed in Tariffs (2010) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (2011) were underway or near introduction before this research took place. The study provides the first empirical evidence of the effects of the multidimensional measures of the country’s institutional profile on farmers’ RE investment intentions. Secondly, it clarifies the distinct role played by national formal and informal institutions on farmers’ investment intentions showing that informal institutions and not formal regulatory factors have a direct effect on farmers’ intentions to invest in RE enterprises. Thirdly, the investigation reveals that social acceptability of entrepreneurship in the RE sector is negatively related to investment intentions and moderates the efficacy of formal government policies in influencing entrepreneurial behaviour in the RE sector. The study concludes that any study that relies only on one type of institution will be making significant prediction mistakes. This study provides further support for cognitive based process models of intentions by showing strong significant positive effects of perceived self-efficacy and perceived desirability of RE enterprises on investment intentions. In fact, the study shows that farmers’ attitudes towards RE explain the highest amount of variance in investment intentions over and above the combined effect of external resource and institutional factors. The study illustrates that perceived self-efficacy and perceived desirability of RE enterprises mediate the effect of the rich set of exogenous variables investigated in this study on investment intentions and argues that policy makers need to focus on improving the regulatory, cognitive and normative institutional environments as a way to improve attitudes towards RE and consequently their intentions to invest in these enterprises. ii Research outputs 1. Mbzibain, A . (2012) The effect of farmer capacities, farm business resources and perceived support of family, friends and associational networks on intentions to invest in renewable energy ventures in the UK. International Journal of Applied Behavioural Economics (forthcoming, 3 rd issue 2013) . 2. Mbzibain, A ., Hocking, T., Tate, G. and Ali, S. (fortcoming) Renewable energy enterprises on UK farms: Assessing levels of uptake, motivations and constraiints to widespread adoption. Biomass and Bioenergy , xxx (2012) pp.1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2012.11.028. 3. Tate, G., Mbzibain, A. and Ali, S. (2012) A comparison of the drivers influencing farmers’ adoption of enterprises associated with renewable energy. Energy Policy , 49 (1) 400-409 4. Tate, G. and Mbzibain, A. (2011) The future contribution of bioenergy enterprises to rural business viability in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Agricultural Management , 1(2), pp.23-37. 5. Mbzibain, A, Hocking, T.J, Tate, G and Ali, S (2011) Biomass enterprises on UK farms: Factors influencing renewable energy investment decisions by farmers. Aspects of Applied Biology 112, 2011 6. Mbzibain, A, Tate, G and Ali, S (2012) The impact of national institutional structures on farmers’ intentions to invest in renewable energy enterprises in the UK. Paper submitted for publication in the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development . Under Review 7. Mbzibain, A, Tate, G, Hocking, T.J, and Ali, S (2011) The impact of social norms, networks, regulatory and cognitive factors on environmental entrepreneurship: The case of the UK farm sector. Paper presented at the ISBE Conference 2011 held at Sheffield University, November 09-10, 2011 iii 8. Mbzibain, A and Tate, G (2011) Exploring factors affecting farmers’ decisions to invest in RE on UK farms. Paper presented at the 9th Rural Enterprise Conference held at Nottingham Trent University, September 22-23, 2011 9. Mbzibain, A (2011) Renewable energy enterprises: a viable business proposition for the UK Farm Sector? Won the University of Wolverhampton post graduate poster competition, September 2011 10. Mbzibain, A (2011) Renewable energy enterprises: a viable business proposition for the UK Farm Sector? Paper presented at the 19th European Biomass conference held in Berlin in June 2011 iv Acknowledgements I take full responsibility for the work presented in this document but at the same time acknowledge that what is written here is by no means the fruit of my single effort. I am very much indebted to my supervisors, Dr Graham Tate, Dr Shaukat Ali and Professor Trevor J. Hocking for guiding me through this study. I thank them for their direction, devotion and steadfastness and for their friendship in helping me to gain this degree. I must also thank the John Oldacre Foundation for funding the research project. I am also very thankful to all the staff at the University of Wolverhampton for their support. I wish to thank Dr Yong Wang most especially for all the support during my data analysis and to Dr Paschal Anosike for continuous encouragement. Thanks to Andy, David and Bruce for all the interesting side discussions in ML120 which were useful in shaping parts of this research project. Special thanks also go to the National Farmers’ Union Shropshire UK for granting me access to their membership database and to all the members who participated in this study. Many thanks also go to my parents and in-laws who have all been supportive during my studies. Very special appreciation goes to my dearest wife Francisca and to my son Nino who were always by my side and encouraged me to pursue the study to the end. I would never have completed this study without their kind support. I end this section with mighty thanks to God for all his continuous blessings. v Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. i Research outputs .................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ v Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. vi List of figures ..................................................................................................................... xiii List of abbreviations .......................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1: Introduction .........................................................................................................
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