Sustainable energy technologies use: understanding social drivers and humanistic outcomes in four EU countries

The role of technology in helping citizens to address environmental problems is an important area of investigation. It is on this context that sustainable energy technologies emerge as critical in mitigating climate change issues. While prior research has mainly focused on investigating the antecedents of adoption and use, this study offers a new perspective by exploring the impact of social dimensions—status and sense of belonging—on technology use behavior. Also, it further examines how the technology use impacts a set of humanistic outcomes, reinforcing the need of holistic studies on both antecedents and outcomes of technologies, especially on the human-centered ones. To achieve this, we adopt a mixed-methods approach with developmental purpose to build the research model. Data from four European countries is used to validate the model, revealing that prestige significantly influences technology use, which in turn strongly affects well-being and comfort. These effects are even stronger among users with strong pro-environmental profile, suggesting that promoting other eco-friendly actions can enhance perceptions of the technology’s benefits. Finally, a cross-country analysis is performed confirming the robustness of these results, offering a comprehensive perspective on sustainable technology use.