Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

9-2012

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.

Keywords

Rural electrification, Business model, Customer

Discipline

Agribusiness | Business | Strategic Management Policy

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Energy Policy

Volume

48

First Page

687

Last Page

697

ISSN

0301-4215

Identifier

10.1016/j.enpol.2012.05.078

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.05.078

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