Antecedents of adopting emerging energy efficient technologies : the case of Iran's energy intensive industries

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the energy efficiency adoption process in Iranian firms, which have been experiencing two shocks that are an extensive energy subsidies reform and harsh international economic sanctions. Furthermore, I examine how Iranian firms’ responses to emerging energy efficient technologies are characterized by sectoral and firm level features. This research is built on explorative and empirical case studies. This methodology has been carefully selected to discover and examine how Iranian energy-intensive firms adopt and implement emerging energy efficient technologies and practices. For this purpose, I conducted semi-structured interviews of energy management practices within six firms in three energy-intensive industrial sectors including Cement, Metal and Petrochemical. The results show that all six companies opted only short-term plans to survive from consequences of subsidies reform. Moreover, while some Iranian firms have responded to economic sanctions by purchasing lower quality energy-efficient technologies, the others have burdened higher cost of technology acquisition.