Factors Influencing U.S. Homebuilders’ Adoption of Green Homebuilding Products

Abstract

While many researchers have analyzed the obstacles to the diffusion of innovation in building construction, little empirical evidence has been gathered about the factors associated with U.S. homebuilders’ adoption of innovative building products. In this paper, we develop a theory-driven diffusion of innovation conceptual model of homebuilders’ adoption of high-performance building product innovations. We are among the first to operationalize a regression model to demonstrate an application of the model using a large dataset from the National Association of Homebuilders. Model results indicate that builders’ selections of high-performance products are influenced by internal or firm attributes, external attributes, as well as the attributes of the high-performance innovations. These results suggest that the adoption rates of future innovative building products will likely be influenced by product and climate and have the potential to be amplified by bandwagon effects.