17 Energy Efficiency Within Sustainable Development in Asia …
263
make economic and financial decisions. They are used not only to study, analyze, and
organize economic realities using economic concepts, but also to reduce uncertainties along paths of economic activity (Knorr Cetina and Preda 2001; Preda 2002).
Within the given context, one major issue is knowledge fit in respect to the concepts
employed and the information contents and representations chosen for producing and
documenting economic knowledge. Here a means is required to convey correctly and
adequately the (shared) meaning of energy efficiency investment to different actors
from the commercial, industrial, and financial sectors. For example, considering
market descriptions in developing Asia, there are differences in environmental regulations and widely offered government energy subsidies to enable highly competitive
manufacturing, and these need to be accounted for in action-relevant information
provided to economic actors.
Also, there is a desire for much shorter periods of investment payback and for
shorter contracts, since economies are often based on the five-year plans which are
still in place in various Asian regions, and a large number of state-owned enterprises still exist, with their performance evaluation linked to those centrally planned
economies. This environment does not fit the typical time frame considered for EPC
within energy efficiency investments in most Western developed economies (cf. (Lo
et al. 2015; Kostka and Shin 2013; Zhang et al. 2018)). Which type of information to
include within the economic knowledge is also interrelated with the socio-cultural
dimension of the Asian context. For example, information related to energy efficiency
investment should be more inclusive (see contextualism and tolerance for ambiguity
in the next section), instead of focusing exclusively on a particular actor’s individual
situation (usually that of an ESCO client), as is typically done when knowledge is
created and compiled for a traditional (investment grade) energy audit report.
17.4.3 The Societal and Cultural Dimensions
Besides the technical and economic aspects, additional factors relating to social
and cultural value dimensions need to be considered in order to gain support for
the creation of a shared understanding within the context of energy efficiency in
developing Asia. This will also make boundary objects and organizations within a
wider boundary infrastructure usable and effective in practice. Societal and cultural
values and norms, which have been defined as “the collective programming of the
mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others”
((Hofstede et al. 2010) p 6), with culture being to society what memory is to an
individual (Triandis 1995), are essential elements in understanding the dynamics
and behavior of groups and communities of practice in their interactions within and
across systems and organizations.
Here societal and cultural norms refer to the value systems which are shared
by most groups within a nation. In turn, societal and cultural values are described
as broad or general tendencies to prefer certain states of affairs over others (cf.
(Hofstede et al. 2010)). Hence, culture refers to those values at the collective level in
263
make economic and financial decisions. They are used not only to study, analyze, and
organize economic realities using economic concepts, but also to reduce uncertainties along paths of economic activity (Knorr Cetina and Preda 2001; Preda 2002).
Within the given context, one major issue is knowledge fit in respect to the concepts
employed and the information contents and representations chosen for producing and
documenting economic knowledge. Here a means is required to convey correctly and
adequately the (shared) meaning of energy efficiency investment to different actors
from the commercial, industrial, and financial sectors. For example, considering
market descriptions in developing Asia, there are differences in environmental regulations and widely offered government energy subsidies to enable highly competitive
manufacturing, and these need to be accounted for in action-relevant information
provided to economic actors.
Also, there is a desire for much shorter periods of investment payback and for
shorter contracts, since economies are often based on the five-year plans which are
still in place in various Asian regions, and a large number of state-owned enterprises still exist, with their performance evaluation linked to those centrally planned
economies. This environment does not fit the typical time frame considered for EPC
within energy efficiency investments in most Western developed economies (cf. (Lo
et al. 2015; Kostka and Shin 2013; Zhang et al. 2018)). Which type of information to
include within the economic knowledge is also interrelated with the socio-cultural
dimension of the Asian context. For example, information related to energy efficiency
investment should be more inclusive (see contextualism and tolerance for ambiguity
in the next section), instead of focusing exclusively on a particular actor’s individual
situation (usually that of an ESCO client), as is typically done when knowledge is
created and compiled for a traditional (investment grade) energy audit report.
17.4.3 The Societal and Cultural Dimensions
Besides the technical and economic aspects, additional factors relating to social
and cultural value dimensions need to be considered in order to gain support for
the creation of a shared understanding within the context of energy efficiency in
developing Asia. This will also make boundary objects and organizations within a
wider boundary infrastructure usable and effective in practice. Societal and cultural
values and norms, which have been defined as “the collective programming of the
mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others”
((Hofstede et al. 2010) p 6), with culture being to society what memory is to an
individual (Triandis 1995), are essential elements in understanding the dynamics
and behavior of groups and communities of practice in their interactions within and
across systems and organizations.
Here societal and cultural norms refer to the value systems which are shared
by most groups within a nation. In turn, societal and cultural values are described
as broad or general tendencies to prefer certain states of affairs over others (cf.
(Hofstede et al. 2010)). Hence, culture refers to those values at the collective level in