Impacts of project attributes on investment preferences : an empirical cluster analysis of energy conservation investment attitudes

Investment attitude refers to the way managements of firms value attributes of investmentproposals and weigh them in their final appraisal. It seems that among firms in the Netherlands an investment attitude exists that hinders theimplementation of energy conservation projects. Using paired comparison results from a survey on energy conservation, this paper evaluates investmentpreferences of firms by applying a Bradley-Terry model. The impact of project attributes on the investment preference is analysed in order to disclosethe underlying investment attitude and to identify barriers to the advance of energy conservation technologies. A latent class approach is used todetect clusters of firms for which specific barners play a dominant role.