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Technology transfer in the Dominican Republic: A case study of the diffusion of photovoltaics
DISSERTATION

, The Union Institute, United States

The Union Institute . Awarded

Abstract

The present study is the culmination of the scholar's 15-year research study of PV in the Dominican Republic.

Do pre-adoptive decision-making processes have an effect on the long-term success/failure of a photovoltaic (PV) technology in the Dominican Republic? The scholar's research demonstrates the importance of pre-adoptive decision-making processes on the success of PV diffusion over a 15-year time period.

The present case study is an initial inquiry into how pre-adoptive decision-making processes effect the success/failure of PV in the Dominican Republic. How PV spread throughout the Dominican Republic's provinces of Bella Vista, Sosua, Arroyo Seco, Madre Vieja, La Monteada, and El Viente is the subject of this study. The present research explored the consequences of pre-adoptive decision-making, leading to the scholar's formation of a Pre-Adoptive Decision-Making Process Model (PDPM), to describe events that took place prior to the actual diffusion of PV.

In 1984, 1992 and 1999, the scholar visited the Dominican Republic to investigate how the technology of diffused. Participant observation and personally interviewing the same people who first adopted in 1984 were conducted to investigate how their lives changed by 1999 as a result of their adoption of PV.

Social Marketing is the science of how change agencies, i.e. governments, corporations or individuals influence potential adopters decision to innovate in a direction deemed desirable by the change agency enabling them to understand and embrace the new innovation or idea and become adopters. The adoption of PV was directly related to change agent's social marketing efforts, the Dominican's empowerment and motivation to improve their quality of life, and the quintessential diffusion process itself. The Consequences section of this PDE provides insight into how Dominicans think PV affected their lives. The PDPM involved the building of an Association of adopters, an education system and a training facility, and the appearance of PV microbusinesses that ultimately provided the infrastructure for PV sustainability. Through small wins like the project in the Dominican Republic, the future use of PV will have important implications on energy consumption worldwide.

The research presented here seeks to make an original contribution to the diffusion of innovations research by formulating a Pre-Adoptive Decision-Making Process Model (PDPM) which can be applied by a change agent prior to the diffusion of a technology. The present categorization of the consequences of PV over a 15-year period, contribute to the theory of The Diffusion of Innovations, as few long-term studies of consequence have been conducted.

Citation

Lesnick, P.C. Technology transfer in the Dominican Republic: A case study of the diffusion of photovoltaics. Ph.D. thesis, The Union Institute. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

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