Banking Support for Energy Security: The Customer Aspect

Abstract

Within the increased concern for environmental protection, an important aspect is related to renewable energy not only because of the potential for carbon emission reductions but also because of energy security. Relying on renewable energy sources can be a basis for less dependence of the economy on limited energy sources, especially when considering their potential price fluctuations. The role of banks has already been recognized in the context of supporting the greater use of renewable energy solutions. In this paper, the focus is on green banking (GB) services and customers’ intention to adopt them. For its analysis, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) was applied. It was extended with environmental consciousness, as a predictor of attitude and behavioral intention. Moreover, relations between customer intention and its predictors were examined separately for the male and female gender. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research in which behavioral intention toward green banking services was investigated by including mentioned variables from the gender aspect. According to the obtained results, environmental consciousness, attitude and perceived behavior control have the largest influence on customers’ intention. In addition, from the gender aspect, unlike male, the intention of female customers is significantly affected by perceived behavior control.