Who Leads Sustainability? Identifying Corporate Clusters Driving The Low-Carbon Transition

Abstract

Background: Climate change mitigation and the transition to sustainability require the accelerated adoption of energy efficiency (EE) technologies in the industrial and SME sectors. Although the economic and environmental benefits of these technologies are well documented, adoption rates remain far below their potential.
Purpose: This study investigates the financial, policy, and organisational determinants of energy efficiency (EE) technology adoption among industrial firms and SMEs in Greater Jakarta, where adoption rates remain significantly below their potential despite well-documented economic and environmental benefits. Drawing on Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory, the study examines how institutional support, managerial capability, access to financing, and technological readiness shape adoption outcomes in this context.
Design/methodology/approach: Using a 42-item Likert-type survey of 303 firms across Jakarta, Bekasi, and Tangerang, this study applied principal component analysis (PCA) to extract sustainability-oriented adoption factors, K-Means clustering to classify adopter types, and binary logistic regression to predict high-adoption status. Model diagnostics included reliability, ROC–AUC, Hosmer–Lemeshow, and multicollinearity checks.
Findings: Two groups were identified: Context-Advantaged firms, which leveraged networks and policy support, and Process-Strong firms, which demonstrated stronger internal capabilities and training. PCA identified 11 retained components, with policy clarity, managerial capability, and financing capacity emerging as key sustainability-related dimensions. The logistic regression model produced a ROC–AUC of 0.998 and a Nagelkerke R² of 0.964. Sectoral analysis indicated that manufacturing firms tended towards network- and policy-oriented pathways, whereas trade firms showed stronger process-oriented characteristics.
Conclusions: The findings indicate that EE technology adoption is associated with the convergence of internal capabilities, access to financing, and stable policy signals. The results support the integration of Diffusion of Innovations and Institutional Theory as a socio-technical framework for understanding corporate sustainability transitions. The study contributes an empirically grounded segmentation approach for EE policy design in emerging-market contexts.
Originality/value (State of the art): This study contributes by combining Diffusion of Innovations and Institutional Theory into a socio-technical framework that links the adoption of energy efficiency technologies to climate-mitigation goals. The results provide a practical segmentation of firms into Context-Advantaged and Process-Strong profiles and inform targeted policy approaches for accelerating the low-carbon transition among industrial firms and SMEs in Greater Jakarta.

Keywords: Sustainability, energy efficiency, corporate adoption, PCA, logistic regression