Using a mixed community compensation approach to facilitate wind farm acceptance: the effect of bribery perceptions, local involvement, and reputation

Community compensation may be offered in return for the adverse local costs of wind farms. In this experimental scenario study, 361 British participants took the position of a resident facing this hypothetical situation. They learned that the project developer had a positive or negative reputation, and that compensation was being offered by one of three approaches: voluntarily, institutionalized through law, or by a mix of the latter with local involvement in the decision regarding compensation amount. Regardless of the project developer’s reputation, it was predicted that the mixed approach would result in higher local wind farm acceptance, compared to the other approaches. The local acceptance level was expected to be moderated by reputation for the voluntary approach: with a negative reputation leading to lower local acceptance compared to the fully institutionalized approach. Finally, the effects of project developer reputation and compensation approach on local wind farm...Show moreCommunity compensation may be offered in return for the adverse local costs of wind farms. In this experimental scenario study, 361 British participants took the position of a resident facing this hypothetical situation. They learned that the project developer had a positive or negative reputation, and that compensation was being offered by one of three approaches: voluntarily, institutionalized through law, or by a mix of the latter with local involvement in the decision regarding compensation amount. Regardless of the project developer’s reputation, it was predicted that the mixed approach would result in higher local wind farm acceptance, compared to the other approaches. The local acceptance level was expected to be moderated by reputation for the voluntary approach: with a negative reputation leading to lower local acceptance compared to the fully institutionalized approach. Finally, the effects of project developer reputation and compensation approach on local wind farm acceptance were predicted to be mediated by perceptions of bribery and local involvement. The results demonstrated that voluntarily providing compensation led to greater local wind farm acceptance than institutionalizing compensation, whilst the mixed approach did not differ from either approach. When a negative reputation was made salient, the mixed approach resulted in greater bribery perceptions than both of the other approaches. Lastly, a partial mediation indicated the importance of project developer reputation for wind farm sitings: with a positive reputation found to elicit lower bribery perceptions, higher perceived involvement, and as a result, greater overall local wind farm acceptance, than a negative reputation.Show less

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Using a mixed community compensation approach to facilitate wind farm acceptance: the effect of bribery perceptions, local involvement, and reputation