Kenington, David C M;
(2023)
Owner-managed SME responses to innovative energy data and management tools: an action research case study.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
SMEs use more than 13% of global energy, so they are an important target to help achieve UK Net Zero targets. However, SMEs manage energy poorly, and little is understood about how to influence them to improve energy management. Responding to this challenge, from 2018-2020, the UK Government delivered an £8.8 million Non-Domestic Smart Energy Management Innovation Competition (NDSEMIC), which funded the development of innovative smart meter data-based energy management tools. This thesis presents an action research study exploring the question: How do owner-managed SMEs respond to the development and testing of new smart meter data-based energy management tools? The study involved working with one of the Competition participants, a technology innovation business, to inform the design of the tools from which a prototype was developed. Subsequently, the tools were tested, and other applications for smart meter and related data were explored with three owner-managed SMEs, two small independent chains of coffee-shops and cycle-shops and a coffee roastery business. The findings identify that SMEs respond entrepreneurially to developing and testing smart meter data-based tools. Entrepreneurial activities led to identifying new potential uses for the tools to those anticipated at the outset; identifying operational roles, such as managing quality, productivity and premises security. Entrepreneurialism theory, developed in SME business management research includes heuristics called Causation, Effectuation and Absence of Strategy. These heuristics are used to help better understand SME decision-making when responding to the development and testing of new energy management tools. These heuristics are recommended as a helpful approach to better conceptualise how to influence SME decision-making to improve energy management.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Owner-managed SME responses to innovative energy data and management tools: an action research case study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10168786 |
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