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The rural consumer adoption of sustainable energy: a PLS-SEM-ANN approach of conceptual model development and cross-country validation of Pakistan and Malaysia

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Abstract

Sustainable and alternative energy sources of biofuel and solar power panel have been revolutionizing the lives and economy of many countries. However, these changes mainly occur in the urban areas and the rural population section has long been ignored by policy makers and government in the provision of energy. It is only recently that solar and biofuel are finally making in road to provide cheap and clean energy sources to rural population. As a result, literatures on consumer behavior of rural population towards sustainable energy sources are still very scarce. The present research aims to fulfill this gap by developing a conceptual model to investigate the adoption of solar power and biofuel energy resources in the cross-cultural setting of Malaysia and Pakistan. The data was collected from the rural areas of Pakistan and Malaysia. The two-stage data analysis method of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) have been applied to satisfy both linear and non-linear regression assumptions, respectively. The results show that consumer in rural areas of Pakistan are willing and possess intention to adopt both biofuel and solar power for commercial and domestic use. Additionally, the results confirm that branding, economic, and altruistic factors are important in yielding intention to use towards biofuel and solar power panel in Pakistan which are validated by the results obtained in Malaysia. Other factors such as climate change awareness, retailer services quality, and ease of use are also important. The results offer wide-ranging theoretical and managerial implications.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Research Fund (UTARRF) with the grant number IPSR/RMC/UTARRF/2020C1/05 and by the FRGS with the grant number JPT.S(BKPI)2000/016/073Jld.2(20) of the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) Malaysia, and UTAR Financial Support for Journal Publication scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Kampar, Malaysia

    Yip Chee Yin, Au Yong Hui Nee & Oon Kam Hoe

  2. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Shaheed Benazirabad, Pakistan

    Junaid Ahmed

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  1. Yip Chee Yin
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Contributions

Conceptualization, J.A. and Y.C.Y.; methodology, J.A.; software, J.A.; validation, J.A. and Y.C.Y.; formal analysis, J.A.; investigation, J.A. and Y.C.Y.; resources, J.A. and Y.C.Y.; data curation, J.A.; writing and preparation of the original draft, J.A. and O.K.H.; writing which included review and editing, J.A., A.Y.H.N., and O.K.H.; visualization, Y.C.Y. and O.K.H.; supervision, Y.C.Y. and J.A.; project administration, J.A. and Y.C.Y.; funding acquisition, Y.C.Y. and A.Y.H.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Junaid Ahmed.

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Appendix

Appendix

Tables

Table 12 Discriminant validity of Pakistan
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Table 13 Discriminant validity of Malaysia
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Table 14 ANN model 1
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Table 15 ANN model 2
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Table 16 ANN model 3
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Table 17 ANN model 4
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Table 18 ANN model 5
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Table 19 ANN model 6
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Table 20 ANN model 7
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Table 21 ANN model 8
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Yin, Y.C., Ahmed, J., Nee, A.Y.H. et al. The rural consumer adoption of sustainable energy: a PLS-SEM-ANN approach of conceptual model development and cross-country validation of Pakistan and Malaysia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 5881–5902 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22271-x

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