An integrated framework for rural electrification: Adopting a user-centric approach to business model development

Abstract

Rural electrification (RE) has gained prominence over the past two decades as an effective means for improving living conditions. This growth has largely been driven by socio-economic and political imperatives to improve rural livelihood and by technological innovation. Based on a content analysis of 232 scholarly articles, the literature is categorized into four focal lenses: technology, institutional, viability and user-centric. We find that the first two dominate the RE debate. The viability lens has been used less frequently, whilst the user-centric lens began to engage scholars as late as 2007. We provide an overview of the technological, institutional and viability lenses, and elaborate upon the user-centric lens in greater detail. For energy policy and practice, we combine the four lenses to develop a business model framework that policy makers, practitioners and investors could use to assess RE projects or to design future rural electrification strategies.

A Call for University-Based Business Schools to “Lower Their Walls:” Collaborating With Other Academic Departments in Pursuit of Social Value

“…Such boundary spanning roles facilitate greater academic interconnectedness in interdisciplinary initiatives within the institution. For example, following interdisciplinary conversations at Imperial College, Gerry George (formerly a management professor at Imperial and now dean at Singapore Management University) collaborated on a large-scale project to electrify rural railways in India (Schillebeeckx, Parikh, Bansal, & George, 2012). Beyond these specific examples, there appear to be new incentives for academics to work across disciplines as governments (such as in the UK) provide funding for and encourage the creation of interdisciplinary institutes.…”

Sustainability of Off-Grid Photovoltaic Systems for Rural Electrification in Developing Countries: A Review

“…Culture determines the responsible conduct and motivations of a person, risk assessment, degree of political participation, value formation and environmental awareness [197]. Cultural justice for energy concerns the respect for cultural habits and values when designing an energy solution [65]. Unfortunately, the culture of small rural communities is often not considered in the execution of public policies.…”

“…Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of institutions for sustainable rural electrification [56,[65][66][67][68][69]. Institutions can be understood as a framework of guidelines that set the rules of the game for interactions between human beings [70]; while formal institutions refer to laws and regulations that have been legally enacted by actors and that determine the political, economic and enforcement system, informal institutions can be understood as religious or moral values and traditions that have been established in a certain place, though they have not been legally enacted [71].…”

Material Implications of Rural Electrification—A Methodological Framework to Assess In-Use Stocks of Off-Grid Solar Products and EEE in Rural Households in Bangladesh

“…Most literature focuses on the technology and the institutional setting. User-centered research and financial viability are also of interest but are less researched [60]. The few publications on environmental and human health impacts of off-grid electrification indicate positive impacts, depending highly on scenarios for the end-of-life management for batteries [61], the lifespan of the products, and the institutional and economic success of the electrification programs [14].…”