1. Introduction
Smart grids are a typical example of an emergent convergence technology that integrates the energy industry and information technology (IT). Smart grids represent the next generation of intelligent electric power grids. Smart grids enable both suppliers and consumers of electricity to engage in two-way communication by incorporating IT into existing power grids for the optimization of energy efficiency and utilization [
1,
2,
3]. South Korea is one of the leading countries for successfully implementing the diffusion of smart grid technologies. South Korea, together with the U.S., the E.U., and Japan, is one of the first-movers in the development of smart grids [
1,
4].
Photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicles (EVs) are closely related to smart grids. NIST [
5] suggested a conceptual model of smart grids including customers, markets, operations, service providers, generation including distributed energy resources (DER), transmission, and distribution. DER is associated with generation, storage, and demand response for maximizing energy efficiency. Demand response is an important resource of the market domain, because it manages electricity consumption at the consumer side and aims to improve energy efficiency [
6]. Palensky and Dietrich [
7] describe a taxonomy of demand response management and suggest new challenges related to demand response management.
PV systems are contained in the generation domain, and EV is one of the customer domains [
5]. The Jeju smart grid testbed and carbon-free project, as part of the Korean smart grid plan, include PV and EV as well as smart grids. The common agenda of smart grids, PV, and EV is to respond to climate change and environmental concerns. Thus, in the present study, smart grid, PV, and EV are referred to as smart grid-related technology.
Smart grid-related technology has been introduced and diffused by government-private partnerships, with subsidies in many countries as well as South Korea [
8,
9]. Government-led projects or projects featuring government and private partnerships with subsidies may be successful at their adoption stage. However, the whole process ranging from pre-adoption to post-adoption, including infusion, may feature different results.
There are no studies dealing with the diffusion of smart grid-related technology in terms of the entire process from adoption to infusion. Coping theory [
10] allows researchers to simultaneously study the adoption and infusion of smart grid-related technology. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the relationships between users’ awareness toward smart grid-related technology, its appraisal, its adaptation acts, and its infusion throughout the whole process from pre-adoption to post-adoption. Thus, the originality of the present paper comes from an integrated research model dealing with the infusion of smart grid-related technologies. As it is the stage of post-demonstration of the smart grid testbed in South Korea, findings in the present study will hopefully contribute to the successful diffusion of smart grid-related technologies and providing some practical lessons to academics and practitioners. In particular, the results of the present study are significant and useful to policy making because data were collected from users who participated in the Jeju smart grid testbed.
3. Research Model and Hypothesis
Lazarus and Folkman [
10] suggested the stress–coping–adaptation model describing the process of perceiving a stress, performing cognitive appraisals, and coping through adaptive acts. The CMUA encompasses appraisals assessing an IT event with its awareness, adaptation strategies, and outcomes that are divided into individual effectiveness, minimization of the negative consequences of the IT event, restoring personal emotional stability, and exit. Fadel and Brown [
15] proposed a model describing the relationship between IS perceptions based on the theory of IS adoption and appraisal of IS based on coping theory. According to Lazarus and Folkman [
10], cognitive appraisal occurs when a person perceives the threatening tendency of stress. Cognitive appraisal depends on how a person perceives the IT event. Drawing on coping theory and the CMUA, a research model is proposed, as shown in
Figure 2. The research model includes the entire process of technology diffusion such as benefit and risk expectancy as user’s awareness of technology, adaptation process, and infusion as an outcome of post-adoption of technology.
According to Fadel and Brown [
15], performance expectancy and effort expectancy influence how users assess an IS as the antecedents of cognitive appraisal of the coping process. Performance expectancy is one of IS perceptions in UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) regarding IS adoption and use behavior [
25]. The empirical study using data collected from electronic medical system (EMS) users found that performance expectancy of using the EMS positively influences challenge appraisal being viewed as an opportunity.
Perceived risk is associated with consumer behavior. Perceived risk negatively influences IT or IS adoption [
26,
27,
28]. Users who identify technology as being risky assess technology as potentially dangerous or harmful to them.
Joo and Kim [
1] analyzed data collected from in-depth interviews with 41 users of the smart grid in the Jeju testbed. They argued that benefit expectancy included demand increase for tourism, the construction of clean and pleasant environments, and local economic growth, as well as direct economic benefits such as saving electricity and reducing of heating or air conditioning costs. On the other hand, some users questioned whether smart grid technology is reliable and matured, and in particular, a few users worried about maintenance cost and future financial burdens although smart grid devices had been distributed to them free of charge during the testbed period. In the present study, benefit expectancy is defined as the degree to which a user expects that using the technology would help him or her to realize benefits in his or her life. Risk expectancy is defined as the degree to which a user perceived that using the technology would result in risky situations in their life, as shown in
Appendix A.
Lazarus and Folkman [
10] suggested irrelevant, benign/positive, and stress as the outcomes in response to “What is at stake for me in this situation.” A stressful situation is appraised as a thereat if it seems likely to result in some damage, or as a challenge if it is viewed as an opportunity for gain or growth [
10,
15]. In the present study, the challenge appraisal refers to the degree to which a person assesses technology as a chance for gain or growth, whereas the threat appraisal is defined as the degree to which a person assesses technology as potentially resulting in harm or. Two hypotheses regarding the relations of the awareness and the appraisal in the research model are suggested as follows:
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Benefit expectancy positively influences challenge appraisal.
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Risk expectancy positively influences threat appraisal.
Many previous studies have dealt with the relationships between the appraisal of stressful events and an individual’s coping behavior [
10,
12,
16,
29,
30]. Beaudry and Pinsonneault [
12] analyzed the relationships between appraisals including opportunity and threat, and problem-focused or emotion-focused acts as adaptation strategies through multiple case approach. According to Fadel [
16]’s study of empirical analysis using data collected from users of electronic medical systems, the appraisal of information systems as a challenge is associated with engagement in both problem-focused adaptation and emotion-focused adaptation behaviors, in which the former includes self-adaptation and system adaptation and the latter consists of positive reappraisal and distancing/avoidance. Marakhimov and Joo [
30] investigated the relationships between the appraisals as challenges or threats, and problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies by analyzing data collected from consumers of wearable devices. Challenge appraisal is positively associated with both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping behaviors [
30]. Threat appraisal influences emotion-focused coping behavior [
30]. Problem-focused adaptation is divided into self-adaptation and system adaptation strategies [
10,
16]. In the present study, self-adaptation is defined as the degree to which the user adapts to new technologies by making proactive efforts to learn new skills or communicate with others such as experts or suppliers, while system adaptation refers to the degree to which a user adapts to technology by making efforts to change its functionalities or features. Emotion-focused adaptation strategy includes positive reappraisal, which is defined as the degree to which a user attempts to create or ascribe positive meaning to the technology, and distancing/avoidance, which refers to the degree to which a user has wishful thinking or efforts to escape or detach the technology.
Joo and Kim [
1] interviewed with 41 users who participated in the Jeju smart grid testbed in 2011. According to their study, users who considered the smart grid technology as an opportunity to change for better life or an opportunity to develop new events for helpful life had a proactive attitude toward diffusion of smart grids as described in the following statements:
“Now I am more knowledgeable than the provider’s staff. I need to get economic benefits. So I studied. I followed around the technicians while they installed the system and asked questions to the staff. I installed for the first time in the world electronic appliances that use renewable energy. I can operate air conditioner, refrigerators, washing machines, kitchen appliances, and TVs by smartphones.”
Users who assessed smart grid technology as a chance for gain or growth adapted it by making efforts to learn new skills, or to ascribe positive meaning to it, as described by informants [
1]:
“I positively changed my attitude toward the smart grid technology after I experienced that my neighbor had benefits from it. Well, it saves money. Although CO2 reductions and other environmental benefits don’t mean much to me, I am adopting it because it offers both convenience and financial benefits. I wasn’t really interested in the smart grid at first. I didn’t seek to learn. But as I became more exposed to it, I changed my mind and am somewhat interested. It was inconvenient at first but now I know it saves electricity. It is now convenient.”
The following four hypotheses are proposed:
Hypothesis 3 (H3). Challenge appraisal positively influences self-adaptation.
Hypothesis 4 (H4). Challenge appraisal positively influences system adaptation.
Hypothesis 5 (H5). Challenge appraisal positively influences positive reappraisal.
Hypothesis 6 (H6). Threat appraisal positively influences distancing/avoidance.
Adaptation efforts result in various outcomes or sequences. These outcomes depend on adaptation strategies. Users can increase the effect of technology potential, or can withdraw from or exit the situation [
12]. Infusion is one of the outcomes of adaptation acts. Fadel [
16] investigated the relationship between adaptation strategies and IS infusion. Problem-focused adaptation, which refers to efforts to change one’s self or change the environment (functionalities and features of IS), positively influences IS infusion [
17]. According to Fadel [
17], emotion-focused coping acts include positive reappraisal and distancing/avoidance. Emotion-focused strategies are associated with IS infusion [
17]. Marakhimov and Joo [
30] suggested extended use as an outcome of adaptation strategies, and argued that both problem-focused adaptation and emotion-focused adaptation strategies were related to the extended use of wearable devices. Roldán et al. [
31] examined the relationships between frequency of use, routinization, infusion, and social integration by analyzing data collected from users of a social network site. Infusion plays a mediating role in the relationships between frequency of use or routinization, and social integration [
31]. The following four hypotheses regarding relationships between adaptation strategies and infusion are proposed:
Hypothesis 7 (H7). Self adaptation positively influences infusion.
Hypothesis 8 (H8). System adaptation positively influences emotion.
Hypothesis 9 (H9). Positive reappraisal positively influences infusion.
Hypothesis 10 (H10). Distancing/avoidance negatively influences infusion.
5. Conclusions
The present study empirically analyzed the whole process of diffusing smart grid-related technology by using data collected from users of the Jeju smart grid testbed or carbon-free island project in Jeju, South Korea. In sum, benefit expectancy to smart grid-related technology positively influences challenge appraisal, whereas risk expectancy positively influences threat appraisal. Challenge appraisal positively affects self and system adaptations as problem-focused adaptation strategies, and also positively influences positive reappraisal as an emotion-focused adaptation strategy. Moreover, threat appraisal positively influences distancing/avoidance as an emotion-focused strategy. Self adaptation, positive reappraisal, and distancing/avoidance were significant determinants of infusion of smart grid-related technology. Self adaptation and positive reappraisal positively influence its infusion, whereas distancing/avoidance negatively influences its infusion. However, system adaptation acts have no significant effect on its infusion.
The self adaptation act, a problem-focused strategy, is more important than systems adaptation for infusion, which uses smart grid-related technology to its fullest potential or in the most familiar and efficient ways. Users of smart grid-related technology can maximize infusion by utilizing positive reappraisal acts or mitigating distancing/avoidance acts. It is important for users to assess smart grid-related technology as challenges rather than threats through benefit expectancy at the pre-adoption stage.
Implications for academics are as follows. The integrative research model based on the coping theory effectively explains the whole process of diffusing smart grid-related technology. The research model sheds light on the study regarding the infusion of technology at level of the individual. Infusion, which involves individuals using smart grid-related technology to its fullest potential in their life, is important from the perspectives of firms, society, as well as individuals. Research results found the variables that are significant to the diffusion of smart grid-related technology at each stage of awareness, the adaptation process, and infusion. A methodological approach including a research model can be applied to other emerging technologies.
Implications for practitioners and policy makers are drawn from the research results. Firms can expand the market of products and services and create new wealth and jobs, and infusion of smart grid-related technology enables society to become sustainable. First, at the stage of awareness of smart grid-related technology, government and firm partnerships need to facilitate consumers’ beneficial expectancy or perception of the technology through authentic promotion and education, while a systematic approach to reduce risks or barriers, which may result from unknown risky factors, should be promoted and provided to consumers.
Second, at the stage of adoption of smart grid-related technology, it is important that users assess the technology as a challenge or an opportunity for improving their life because challenge appraisal significantly affects their adaptation behaviors. Firms and government need to devise strategies and execute policies facilitating users to evaluate the potential outcomes of smart grid-related technology as a challenge rather than a threat. It is necessary to promote challenge appraisals in order to achieve positive reappraisals through an emotion-focused strategy. Smart grid-related technology is beneficial at the individual level due to economic and convenience aspects, and also promotes public interest in environmental protection, sustainable regional development, and building clean and comfortable villages. The public interest, as well as individuals’ private benefits, will induce the challenge appraisals. Authentic and continuous communication with consumers promotes challenge appraisals. Nowadays, many consumers know the importance of policies regarding sustainable energy and climate change. It is not difficult to guess consumers’ benefit expectancy affecting challenge appraisals because smart grid-related technology has advantages in the public interest as well as cost savings from the individual perspective.
Finally, at the stage of adaptation and post-adoption, firms and government partnerships need to foster an environment conducive to positive reappraisals and self adaptation behaviors by establishing systematic guidelines and policies. Consumers’ challenge appraisals have a significant effect on their positive reappraisal and self adaptation behaviors. For example, convenient and institutionalized communication channels between suppliers and users will be helpful to promote infusion through users’ adaptation acts. Consumers’ direct and indirect experiences play a role in their positive reappraisal. According to Joo and Kim [
1], communication with acquaintances or neighbors who have positive experience with smart grid-related technology facilitates positive indirect experience.
Generalization of research findings depends on representativeness of sample and its size. Data were collected from valid samples selected from a list of population provided by local government, although purposive sampling was used. 226 samples are sufficient to validate the research model and to test 10 hypotheses. However, there may be a limitation in generalization of the research findings. Further research regarding comparison of PV systems and EVs by applying the research model through multi-group analysis is required to identify different relationships by smart grid-related technologies.