What improves smart meters' implementation? A statistical meta-analysis on smart meters' acceptance

Purpose: This article aims to compare smart meters' acceptance studies worldwide to consolidate trends and highlight factors that are not a consensus. Design/methodology/approach: This work performs a statistical meta-analysis, using the Hunter–Schmidt method and the UTAUT2 model, of the factors of acceptance of smart meters in the world literature. A meta-regression was also conducted to verify the moderation exercised by gender, level of education and timeline context of the articles. Findings: The main results point to hedonic motivation, performance expectancy and effort expectancy as the leading influencers for smart meter's acceptance. Meta-regression indicates that the influence is more significant among the male gender and that over the years, the social influence must gain weight in the smart meter's acceptance. Social implications: Specific strategies are suggested to improve projects for the implementation of smart meters based on the obtained results. Originality/value: The contribution given by this work is relevant, considering it is the first meta-analysis focused on smart meters' acceptance published in the literature