Energy Efficiency, Markets Development, and Trust: The Case of Energy Service Companies in China
This paper addresses the seemingly paradoxical phenomenon that Chinas energy-service companies (ESCOs) have developed only modestly despite favorable political and market conditions for improving energy efficiency in China. We argue that with sophisticated market institutions still evolving in China, trust-based relations between ESCOs and energy customers become essential for successful implementation of energy efficiency projects. Chinese ESCOs, who are predominantly small and private enterprises, perform poorly in terms of trust-building because they are disembedded from local business, social, and political networks. We conclude that in the current institutional setting, the ESCO model based on market relations has serious limitations and is unlikely to lead to large-scale implementation of energy efficiency projects in China.
Genia Kostka Kyoung Marvin Shin
Preliminary draft, please do not cite without permission of the authors
国际会议
北京
英文
1-27
2011-07-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）