Case study

Adoption of environmental innovations at US power plants

Allen S. Bellas and Nancy J. Nentl
College of Management, Metropolitan State University, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract Purpose This paper is a case study that aims to trace the adoption of innovation of the fabric lter, an innovative pollution control device utilized in the industrial energy sector, in order to prole early adopters of this technology. Design/methodology/approach Following their introduction in the mid-1970s, fabric lters, a new type of industrial scrubber, experienced aggressive growth, and by 1990, this new technology represented close to half of the new ue gas particulates (FGP) control units installed. The paper analyzes data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form 767, using t-tests, cross tabulations and binomial regression to identify the characteristics of those boilers, plants and utilities that installed fabric lters from the late 1970s to 1990. Findings Analysis indicates that there are specic characteristics of early adopters of fabric lter technology such as the capacity and age of the associated boiler, the capacity and size of the utility, and whether the utility was privately or publicly owned. Originality/value This research is important in light of forthcoming rules for mercury control at these same units as they will likely require installation of some sort of control technology. The prole of the early adopter of environmental technology that emerges from this study can lead to a rst-to-market advantage for rms eager to market the next innovation to this unique industrial marketplace. Keywords Industrial marketing, Innovation, Pollution control, United States of America Paper type Case study

Background
Industrial rms making decisions about which technology component to integrate into their production process will, from time to time, have the option of being among the rst in the industry to use a new technology. While new technologies might be relatively untested, particularly in actual industrial production settings, such innovations offer the promise of lower costs, greater reliability, and/or improved performance, advantages that might be of interest to different decisionmakers within an organization. Further, it might be expected that rms that are early adopters of a new type of technology at one point in time might also be early adopters of another new type of technology at a different point in time. The goal of this paper is to examine adopter characteristics among power plants and utilities. By identifying the characteristics of rms who were rst to install innovations in one environmental technology, it may be possible to predict which rms will be most likely to adopt the next generation of environmental enhancements. This information then could be important to rms that design, produce and market these units.
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Specically, we investigate the characteristics of electric utilities and power plants that were early adopters of fabric lters (also known as baghouses), an environmental ltering innovation that controls ue gas particulates (FGP). The particular characteristics of interest are the size of the utility, the size and age of the associated boiler, the form of ownership of the utility (investor-owned or publicly-owned), and a single product characteristic, the cost of the innovation. This analysis is particularly interesting because next on the horizon will be innovations to control mercury emissions, and we propose that the characteristics of utilities and plants who were early adopters of fabric lters will allow us to predict which will be early adopters of innovative approaches to mercury control.

Literature review
Some of the earliest work in the area of adoption of innovation originated in the agricultural industry where researchers segmented Iowa farmers into categories depending on the amount of time it took them to adopt a new hybrid corn seed (Ryan and Gross, 1943). The categories ranged from those who were eager to adopt new products (Innovators and Early Adopters) to those who were late or last to adopt new products (Late Majority and Laggards). The seminal work in
The authors would like to thank Dr David OHara and Dr Ian Lange for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper, as well as Peris Outa for her valuable assistance with the data. Any errors are the fault of the authors.

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 22/5 (2007) 336 341 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624] [DOI 10.1108/08858620710773468]

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Adoption of environmental innovations at US power plants Allen S. Bellas and Nancy J. Nentl

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Volume 22 Number 5 2007 336 341

innovation adoption is Diffusion of Innovations, by Rogers (1962), which denes the diffusion process as the spread of an innovation from its inception to the marketplace. Rogers later work recognized the robust nature of the theory and its universal and cross-disciplinary appeal:
Diffusion research is emerging as a single, integrated body of concepts and generalizations, even though the investigations are conducted by researchers in several scientic disciplines (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971).

power source. This may be particularly applicable to analysis of electric utilities and power plants. If a utility that owns multiple plants believes output at one plant is a substitute for output at another plant, then larger utilities may be less risk averse than smaller utilities. If one plants output is not a substitute for another plants output, then the analysis may be applied to plants with multiple, independent generating units.

To that end, the development of diffusion of innovation theory has permeated theoretical streams in the physical and social sciences, education, mass communications and marketing. Moreover, this theory has been investigated from an array of perspectives as a multifaceted phenomenon. While numerous studies have identied the particular product characteristics that inuence the speed with which an innovation is diffused, there has also been ample research investigating organizational characteristics that affect adoption and diffusion patterns, the primary focus of this study. Some of the characteristics that have been examined include the size of the organization, its age, its management style and the relative level of corporate stability (Cooper, 1998; Dess and Beard, 1984). Several studies suggest that the size of an organization is a denitive factor in determining early adoption behavior for various reasons, but primarily because the expected return from adoption is greater for larger rms than for smaller rms (Davies, 1979; Stoneman, 1983; Rose and Joskow, 1990). Rothenberg and Zyglidopoulos (2003) look specically at environmental innovations in the printing industry. While their primary focus is on the effects of the characteristics of the conditions under which the rm operates, they nd that larger rms tend to be greater adopters of environmental innovations. Rose and Joskow (1990) examine adoption of innovation in the electric utility industry and nd that larger rms are more likely to be early adopters. In addition, they address the issue that in standard measures of market penetration, the likelihood of larger rms to be early adopters is articially inated because they have more operating units and thus have a higher probability of purchasing new replacement equipment over any given time period and being labeled an adopter of a new innovation. While larger organizations appear more likely to be early adopters, there are dissenting examples where smaller rms were in fact more likely to adopt early including Ghemawat (1993, 1995), and Adams and Mueller (1982), who investigate the steel industry. Moreover, Jensen (2004) develops a model of adoption by rms with multiple plants in which the likelihood of early adoption depends on a rms multi-plant economies and early adoption might be more common among either larger or smaller rms. In addition to rm size, effects of several other characteristics on the likelihood of early adoption have been examined. Rose and Joskow (1990) nd that investor-owned utilities were more likely to be early adopters of a new generating technology than were publicly-owned rms. Isik and Khanna (2003) look at risk aversion and early adoption among farmers and nd that more risk-averse rms are less likely to be early adopters. However, size may be a factor here as well because plants containing more boilers should be less risk averse regarding adoption of new technology at one boiler, and thus more likely to adopt than plants with fewer boilers. A plant with one boiler, in contrast, would probably be unwilling to attach an unproven technology to their only 337

Environmental technology Power plants that burn coal are subject to regulation of a number of different emissions. Among these are restrictions on emissions of y ash or FGP that often require installation of an FGP control unit. For much of the middle twentieth century, electrostatic precipitators dominated the market for FGP control units at coal burning power plants. These devices are based on a 1907 invention of Frederick Gardner Cottrell and involve passing ue gases between two electrically charged plates. The electrical eld extracts particles from ue gases before they are released to the atmosphere. The late 1970s saw the appearance of FGP control units that use fabric lters rather than electrically charged plates to remove particulates from waste gases. As shown in Table I, these units captured a steadily increasing share of the market until the late 1990s when they accounted for about half of the new FGP units installed. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed rules to govern control of mercury emissions from US power plants, a type of emission that existing pollution control units cannot control effectively. Technology specic to controlling mercury emissions is somewhat in its infancy, with very few mercury control units currently installed at power plants. Of the few units that are installed, most are primarily intended for control of other emissions and only coincidentally reduce mercury emissions. While it is not currently known which technologies might emerge for the removal of mercury, it is likely that some will be similar to conventional removal techniques and some will be based on newer, more innovative approaches to emissions control. If mercury regulation is to be through a technology-based standard (an issue likely to be resolved only after prolonged litigation), early adoption of one technology or another might establish the standard for the industry and give one technology a dominant position in the market[1]. Identifying which rms might be more likely to purchase a mercury control unit using a novel and innovative unit will likely be important to organizations that are rst to design, manufacture, and market these units. Table I Rate of diffusion of fabric lters
Period 1971-1975 1976-1980 1981-1985 1986-1990 1991-1995 1996-2000 Number of new FGP units 368 325 179 54 251 118 Percent of new FGP units that were fabric lters 0.0 6.5 16.2 18.5 55.0 51.7

Adoption of environmental innovations at US power plants Allen S. Bellas and Nancy J. Nentl

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Volume 22 Number 5 2007 336 341

Data
Data used for this study are from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form EIA-767, an annual report of the design and operations of all existing, under construction or planned power plants in the USA with a nameplate capacity of ten or more megawatts. The data included here are from EIA767 from the years 1985 through 1990 (EIA, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990). We chose 1990 as the end date because by this time fabric lter technology had established itself as a major part of the market for new FGP control units. Data for FGP units that came on line in 1985 or earlier are taken from the year 1985 as this was the earliest year for which the data were available. For example, an FGP unit that came on line in 1979 would be represented by data observed in 1985. These data might include the capacity of the utility or the plant at which the FGP unit was installed, which could have changed from the year of installation to 1985. If an FGP unit came on line after 1985, the actual information from the year of installation was used. The unit of observation is each FGP unit that came on line from 1975 through 1990. Data include information on the FGP unit itself, the boiler with which the FGP unit was associated, the plant at which the boiler was located and the utility that owned and operated the plant. Examining only new FGP units and looking at the penetration of fabric lters into new installations rather than looking at penetration into the entire population of operating FGP units eliminates the potential for bias on the effect of rm size discussed by Rose and Joskow (1990) because simply purchasing a new FGP unit does not necessarily imply that the new technology will be chosen. Variables describing the FGP unit itself include a fabric lter dummy variable and the year it came on line. Variables describing the associated boiler include its capacity (in thousand of pounds of steam per hour, or MPPH), a dummy variable indicating whether it was subject to federal new source performance standards for sulfur dioxide (another important emission from coal combustion) and the year the boiler came on line. Variables describing the plant at which the FGP unit was located include the total capacity of the plant (in megawatts), either in 1985 or in the year that the FGP unit came on line and the number of boilers at the plant. Variables describing the utility that owned and operated the plant include the total generating capacity of the utility (in megawatts), either in 1985 or in the year that the FGP unit was installed, and the utilitys form of ownership including a dummy variable for public ownership, a dummy variable indicating a co-op and a combined public co-op dummy. Summary statistics are presented in Table II.

Table II Summary statistics for variables

Variable Utility capacity (MW) Plant capacity (MW) Boiler capacity (MMPH) Federal regulation dummy Plant boilers Fabric lter dummy Boiler year FGP year FGP cost ($1,000) Public ownership dummy Co-op dummy Public co-op dummy Observations Mean Standard deviation 649 651 646 641 651 651 647 651 623 649 649 649 32,645 7,634 2,400 0.36 3.86 0.09 1,968 1,980 12,562 0.20 0.08 0.28 32,761 5,405 1,913 0.48 2.04 0.29 12.34 3.67 15,679 0.40 0.27 0.45

Results
The focus of this analysis is two-fold: rst, we examine the characteristics of early adopters of fabric lter technology versus adopters of other types of particulate control devices to identify characteristics of early adopters of more innovative pollution control devices. Second, we examine rms that were very early adopters of the new technology specically in order to prole very early adopters versus later adopters of newer innovations. 338

The analysis rst looks at early adopters of fabric lters versus other types of FGP units, such as ESPs. A binomial logit model was used to identify the determinants of whether an FGP unit that came on line between 1975 and 1990 was a fabric lter. The explanatory factors were a linear time trend and various explanatory variables related to the associated boiler, the plant in which the unit was placed, and the utility that owned and operated the plant at the time the FGP unit came on line. The dependent variable was a dummy variable indicating whether the FGP unit was a fabric lter. Three models were estimated to allow for changes in how the size of the plant was represented (rst with both capacity and number of boilers and then with only the number of boilers) and to allow for combination of public and co-op utilities in comparison to investor-owned utilities. Results are presented in Table III. The variables describing the size of the boiler, plant and utility are of primary interest. The estimated coefcient on boiler capacity was consistently negative and was signicant in two of the three models estimated, suggesting that a plant might test out the new technology on a smaller boiler before trying it on larger units. When plant size was represented by both capacity and by the number of boilers at the plant (in the rst model estimated) the estimated coefcient on capacity was positive and signicant, suggesting that larger capacity plants were more likely to be early adopters, but the estimated coefcient on the number of boilers was insignicant, suggesting that the number of independent units at the plant had no impact on the adoption decision. When plant size was represented by the number of boilers operating at the plant (in the second model), the estimated coefcient on the number of boilers was positive, although not signicant (p 0:277). The estimated coefcient on utility capacity was consistently negative and signicant, suggesting that smaller utilities were signicantly more likely to be early fabric lter adopters. This is a somewhat surprising result and is consistent with the idea that a smaller organization might be more capable of making the decision to try a new technology. Regression results suggest that smaller utilities, larger plants and smaller boilers were signicantly more likely to adopt fabric lters rather than other types of FGP units between 1975 and 1990. These results are consistent with there being less risk aversion at a large capacity generating plant, but do not support the idea that this is a result of there being substitutability between separate generating units at the plant.

Adoption of environmental innovations at US power plants Allen S. Bellas and Nancy J. Nentl

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Volume 22 Number 5 2007 336 341

Table III Logistic regression results: 1975-1990

Variable Utility capacity Plant capacity Boiler capacity Number of boilers in the plant Federal regulation dummy The year the boiler came on line The year the FGP unit came on line Public ownership dummy Co-op dummy Public co-op dummy Constant 2 16.392 (0.000) 2 16.929 (0.000) 20.000027 (0.002) 0.000134 (0.012) 20.000366 (0.043) 20.070 (0.580) 1.132 (0.062) 20.046 (0.122) 0.215 (0.000) 0.684 (0.075) 0.588 (0.220) 20.000020 (0.006) 20.000027 (0.002) 0.000133 (0.012) 20.000367 (0.043) 20.067 (0.593) 1.125 (0.063) 20.046 (0.124) 0.215 (0.000)

20.000083 (0.528) 0.102 (0.277) 0.932 (0.109) 20.034 (0.223) 0.208 (0.000) 0.510 (0.165) 0.521 (0.269)

0.650 (0.056) 2 16.398 (0.000)

As shown in Tables IV and V, boiler capacity is related to the year of adoption. Of the early adopters, 81.8 percent were to lower capacity boilers with capacities at or below the median of 1,250 MPPH, whereas 71.8 percent of the later adoptions were to larger capacity boilers (x2 16:211, p , 0:001). Boilers with fabric lters installed in 1980 or before had a signicantly smaller average capacity than did those with fabric lters installed after 1980 through 1990 (919.36 MPPH vs 2662.13 MPPH, t 4:155, p , 0:001). When looking at plant capacity and year of adoption in Tables VI and VII, there is also a statistically signicant difference between early and later adopters (x2 8:752, p 0:003). Again, early adopters tended to have plant capacity at or below the median of 3,518-MW (72.7 percent) compared to later adopters, which tended to be above median capacity. Plants with fabric lters installed in 1980 or before averaged signicantly smaller capacity at 3,306.64 MW than those with fabric lters installed after 1980 through 1990 at 8,918.10 MW (t 3:830, p , 0:001). As Tables VIII and IX demonstrate, there is statistical support for the expectation that boiler age would inuence the likelihood of early adoption (x2 4:665, p 0:031), where 59.1 percent of the early adoptions were to boilers that

Table IV Boiler capacity by fabric lter adoption year

Adoption year 1980 or before 1981 to 1990 n (%) n (%) 18 4 22 81.8 18.2 100 1,147.5 28 39 28.2 71.8 100

Notes: Dependent variable is the fabric lter dummy; p-values in parentheses Boiler capacity #1,250-MPPH > 1,250-MPPH Total

The estimated coefcient on the federal new source performance standards regulation dummy was consistently positive, suggesting that units that were subject to federal regulation for sulfur dioxide emissions were more likely to be fabric lter adopters for particulates. The reason for this result is a bit of a mystery, but it does suggest that federal regulation might impact technology adoption in indirect ways. The time-trend variable (the year the FGP unit came on line) had an estimated coefcient that was consistently positive and signicant, a result consistent with the increasing trend of fabric lter adoption over time. Dummy variables indicating that the associated utility was not investor-owned (the public ownership and co-op dummies) had positive, but not signicant estimated coefcients. However, when the two groups were combined in the third regression, the estimated coefcient was nearly signicant (p 0:056). This suggests that utilities that are not investor-owned might be more likely to purchase innovative abatement technologies. When looking exclusively at fabric lter adopters, cross tabulations and independent sample t-tests were used to determine whether early adoption is inuenced by certain characteristics of plants and utilities. We created an Adoption Year variable with two categories to use for both cross tabulations and t-tests: Early adopters (those who installed fabric lters prior to 1981), and later adopters (those who installed fabric lters between 1981 and 1990). Results from these analyses indicate that certain characteristics are more prominent among the early adopters than the later adopters. Among these characteristics are the boiler and plant capacity, age measured by year of boiler installation, the utilitys ownership structure, and a product characteristic of the fabric lter its cost. 339

n
29 32 61

Total (%) 47.5 52.5 100

Table V Boiler capacity by fabric lter adoption year

Boiler capacity 1980 or before 1981 to 1990

n
22 39

Mean 919.36 2,662.13

Std dev. 1,372.205 1,673.993

Std err. mean 292.555 268.053

Table VI Plant capacity by fabric lter adoption year

Adoption year 1980 or 1981 to before 1990 n (%) n (%) 16 6 22 72.7 27.3 100 13 26 39 33.3 66.7 100

Plant capacity # 3,518 MW > 3,518-MW Total

n
29 32 61

Total (%) 47.5 52.5 100

Table VII Plant capacity by fabric lter adoption year

Plant capacity 1980 or before 1981 to 1990

n
22 39

Mean 3,306.64 8,918.10

Std. dev. 3,873.903 7,558.039

Std err. mean 825.919 1,210.255

Adoption of environmental innovations at US power plants Allen S. Bellas and Nancy J. Nentl

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Volume 22 Number 5 2007 336 341

Table VIII Boiler year by fabric lter adoption year

Adoption year 1980 or 1981 to before 1990 n (%) n (%) 9 13 22 40.9 59.1 100 27 12 39 69.2 30.8 100

Table XII Cost of the fabric lter by year of adoption

Cost Total n (%) 36 25 61 59.0 41.0 100 1980 or Before 1981 to 1990

n
21 33

Mean, $1,000 6,474.61 19,218.27

Std dev. 8,091.463 11,537.291

Std err. mean 1,765.702 2,008.385

Boiler age at adoption (years) # 19 > 19 Total

less than $7,000,000 for fabric lters adopted before 1980, but more than $19,000,000 for those adopted later, a statistically signicant difference (t 4:411, p , 0:001).

Table IX Boiler year by fabric lter adoption year

Boiler age 1980 or before 1981 to 1990

Discussion
Std err. mean 2.53657 1.92670

n
22 39

Mean 16.8636 9.7436

Std. dev. 11.89756 12.03223

were more than 19 years old, whereas most later adopters (69.2 percent) were to newer boilers. The age of the associated boiler at fabric lter adoption averaged 16.9 years for early adopters and 9.7 years for later adopters, a signicant difference (t 2:308, p 0:024). As shown in Table X, differences in ownership structure between the very early adopters and later adopters of fabric lters were approaching signicance (x2 2:898, p 0:089). Of those adopting prior to 1980, half of the 22 rms were investor-owned and half were publicly owned or were co-ops. Conversely, of the late adopters, most were investor-owned (71.8 percent), and only 11 out of 39 were publicly-owned or were co-ops. Looking at product cost, Tables XI and XII point out that the cost of the fabric lter appears to be an inuential element of early adoption. Over 95 percent of early adopters had installed costs below the fabric lter median of $12,214,000 whereas only 21.2 percent of the later adopters had installed costs below that level (x2 28:130, p , 0:001). Comparing the early adopters with later adopters, mean capital costs were Table X Ownership by fabric lter adoption year
Adoption year 1980 or 1981 to before 1990 n (%) n (%) 11 11 22 50.0 50.0 100 28 11 39 71.8 28.2 100

Ownership Investor-owned Publicly-owned or co-op Total

n
39 22 61

Total (%) 63.9 36.1 100

Table XI Cost of the fabric lter by year of adoption

Adoption year 1980 or 1981 to before 1990 n (%) n (%) 20 1 21 95.2 4.8 100 7 26 33 21.2 78.8 100

The results suggest that there are clear and specic characteristics of early adopters of fabric lter technology. In contrast to earlier research suggesting that large organizations tend to be early adopters across a variety of industrial entities, we nd that the effect of capacity on the decision to adopt fabric lter technology versus other particulate control technologies is mixed. Regression results suggest that smaller boilers were more likely to have fabric lters attached to them, and that larger plants were more likely to adopt fabric lters when installing new FGP units. Cross tabulation analysis suggests that among those who adopted the new technology, smaller plants and smaller boilers were the earliest adopters. Finally, smaller utilities appear more likely to have been early adopters of fabric lter technology. These mixed results are consistent with a model in which a smaller utility is more able to make a decision to adopt a new technology, but is more inclined to try this new technology at a larger plant where there might be more capacity available as insurance against the unit with the new technology going down. The positive estimated regression coefcient on plant capacity coupled with the negative coefcient on unit or boiler capacity are consistent with new technology being tried out on smaller units within a large plant, thus allowing for further risk avoidance. In summary, the results are consistent with smaller, more nimble utilities adopting technology but doing it in ways that allow them to protect themselves from failure. Age is also a factor in the early adopter process, as is the cost of the installed unit. While the year the boiler came on line was not a signicant factor in determining the choice of fabric lter versus another FGP scrubbing technology, the very early fabric lters were installed on older units. It may be that the lower cost fabric lters were attractive to owners of older boilers that needed particulate control. In terms of ownership structure, our results, although not signicant, do suggest that publicly owned and co-op utilities are more likely to be early adopters. This is in contrast to the ndings of Rose and Joskow (1990), and might suggest that investor-owned utilities are more averse to the risk of a new technology. This difference may be related to the fact that Rose and Joskow investigated the adoption of new generating technology while we examine pollution control technology.

Cost # $12.2 million > $12.2 million Total

n
27 27 54

Total (%) 50.0 50.0 100

Managerial implications
Our research sought to prole the characteristics of early adopters of industrial environmental technologies. We used binomial logistic regression, cross tabulation analysis, and t-tests to determine which rms were early adopters of fabric lter technology for FGP removal and might be potential customers 340

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Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Volume 22 Number 5 2007 336 341

for suppliers of newer innovations in environmental ltering systems that may be introduced in the industrial marketplace. The managerial implications of our ndings are that certain industrial segments can be targeted for marketing the next environmental innovation, particularly an innovation related to control of mercury at coal-burning power plants. Smaller rms that have smaller capacity units within large plants, and, in contrast to some previous ndings, rms that are publiclyowned rather than investor-owned are likely the early adopters of the latest technology. Given our data regarding early adoption behavior, it also appears that cost does matter and is an important consideration in the early adoption process. We thus recommend that marketers use a price penetration strategy where a low introductory installation cost could be offered to plants and utilities that t the prole. Furthermore, rst-toadopt rewards driven by nancial incentives such as low interest loans or deep discounting could be effective in stimulating early adoption. When preparing for the coming regulation of mercury emissions at coal burning power plants in the USA, all of the factors that emerged from this study could play a promising role for marketers eager to identify rst-to-adopt customers. Aggressive early marketing may be particularly important because the technology and the customers who achieve early prominence may be those that dene the requisite standard for abatement.

Note
1 Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, which addresses hazardous emissions and mentions mercury specically, species that the level of control achieved by the top 12 percent of units shall be the standard that will apply for that pollutant, and it is often the case that installation of the technology used by the top rms is sufcient for satisfying the control regulation.

References
Adams, W. and Mueller, H. (1982), The Structure of American Industry, Macmillan Publishing, New York, NY. Cooper, J.R. (1998), A multidimensional approach to the adoption of innovation, Management Decision, Vol. 36 No. 9, pp. 493-502. Davies, S. (1979), The Diffusion of Process Innovations, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. Dess, G.G. and Beard, D.W. (1984), Dimensions of organizational task environment, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 29, pp. 52-73. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (1985), Form EIA-767: Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design Report, EIA, Washington, DC. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (1986), Form EIA-767: Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design Report, EIA, Washington, DC. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (1987), Form EIA-767: Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design Report, EIA, Washington, DC.

Energy Information Administration (EIA) (1988), Form EIA-767: Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design Report, EIA, Washington, DC. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (1989), Form EIA-767: Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design Report, EIA, Washington, DC. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (1990), Form EIA-767: Steam-Electric Plant Operation and Design Report, EIA, Washington, DC. Ghemawat, P. (1993), Commitment to a process innovation: Nucor, USX, and thin-slab casting, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 135-61. Ghemawat, P. (1995), Competitive advantage and internal organization: Nucor revisited, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 685-717. Isik, M. and Khanna, M. (2003), Stochastic technology, risk preferences, and adoption of site specic technologies, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 85 No. 2, pp. 305-17. Jensen, R.A. (2004), Multiplantrms and innovation adoption and diffusion, Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 70 No. 3, pp. 661-71. Rogers, E.M. (1962), Diffusion of Innovations, The Free Press, New York, NY. Rogers, E.M. and Shoemaker, F.F. (1971), Communications of Innovations: A Cross-cultural Approach, The Free Press, New York, NY. Rose, N.L. and Joskow, P.L. (1990), The diffusion of new technologies: evidence from the electric utility industry, RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 354-73. Rothenberg, S. and Zyglidopoulos, S.C. (2003), Determinants of Environmental Innovation Adoption in the Printing Industry, Rochester Institute of Technology Printing Industry Center Research Monograph, Rochester Institute of Technology Printing Industry Center, Rochester, NY, October. Ryan, B. and Gross, N.C. (1943), The diffusion of hybrid seed corn in two Iowa communities, Rural Sociology, Vol. 8, March, pp. 15-24. Stoneman, P. (1983), The Economic Analysis of Technological Change, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Further reading
Rogers, E.M. (1976), New product adoption and diffusion, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 290-301.

About the authors

Allen S. Bellas received his PhD in Economics from the University of Washington. His research interests include environmental policy and pollution control technology. Nancy J. Nentl received her PhD in Mass Communications from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include marketing management and buyer behavior. Nancy J. Nentl is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: nancy.nentl@metrostate.edu

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