Barriers to energy efficiency have been extensively discussed in the energy literature, but little is known about positive drivers. This paper investigates the role of top managers and more specifically of top operations managers on the adoption of energy-efficiency practices, based on 5779 energy efficiency recommendations made to 752 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms under the US Department of Energy's IACs (Industrial Assessment Centers) Program, through which teams of students and faculty from engineering schools provide free energy assessments. Top operations managers possess knowledge of production processes, for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods. We find that their involvement significantly increases the adoption of energy-efficiency initiatives, while involvement of general top managers without an operational role has little or no effect. Involvement of top operations managers increases the percentage of recommended energy savings that are implemented by 13.4% on average and increases the probability of adoption of more disruptive individual recommendations related to process and equipment change from 31% to 44%. Our findings imply that, in order to advance energy efficiency in SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), it may be advisable to target managers who are sufficiently senior but still in a clearly operationally-focused position. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

In many manufacturing operations, profitable energy efficiency opportunities remain unexploited. Although previous studies have tried to explain the underinvestment, we focus on how the way in which a portfolio of opportunities is presented in a list affects adoption decisions. We use information on over 100,000 energy-saving recommendations made to more than 13,000 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms under the Industrial Assessment Centers program of the U.S. Department of Energy. We find that adoption rates are higher for initiatives appearing early in a list of recommendations. This sequence effect is consistent and large: simply moving a recommendation one position lower has the same effect on average as increasing up-front implementation cost by at least 17% from the average value. Given this impact of sequence on adoption of individual recommendations, we utilize variations within our data to examine how various sequencing approaches affect adoption at the portfolio level. Sequences in which recommendations are listed from best to worst payback achieve higher potential energy savings given the investments in energy efficiency made by the firms. We also observe a choice overload effect at the portfolio level, but the magnitude of this effect is small. © 2013 INFORMS.