Social Influence and Disruptive Low Carbon Innovations, 2019

These 2 datasets were collected as part of the SILCI project (‘Social influence and disruptive low carbon innovations’). The SILCI project ran from 2016 - 2021. Further details on the SILCI project and related publications can be found at: https://www.silci.org. The SILCI project explored disruptive low carbon innovations and how they spread through processes of social influence. As part of the SILCI project, a national online survey was conducted in both the UK and Canada to understand consumers' perceptions, communication behaviour, and adoption propensity towards a wide range of low-carbon innovations in 4 different consumer domains: transport, food, homes and energy. The survey instrument was developed and tested by the project team. The survey was implemented by an international market research company in the UK between 2nd July – 3rd September 2019 and in Canada between 11th October – 14th November 2019. A total of n=3014 responses were collected in the UK and n=3352 in Canada. The survey responses were coded and cleaned by the project team. Both the survey instrument and cleaned response data are made available here.

SILCI investigates low carbon disruptive innovations. This project conducts empirical research to understand what are potentially disruptive low carbon innovations, what novel attributes they offer users, and what impact might their widespread adoption have on emissions. As well as identifying and characterising disruptive low carbon innovations across sectors and applications, SILCI is interested in how and why they are adopted, and so how they spread. Information exchanged through social networks, through online activity, and through physical activity in neighbourhoods influences people’s behaviour. Social influence plays an important role in diffusing innovations. SILCI explores what role social influence plays in the diffusion of disruptive low carbon innovations and how these diffusion processes can be accelerated to help reduce emissions.

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