My final doctoral dissertation

Hey Coilers! After four years of research and writing I am happy to announce that I am finally completing my Doctorate Degree from Walden University. Here are a few fun facts about my dissertation:

What degree are you getting?

I am pursuing a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) with an emphasis on Sustainability, Project Management, and Change Management.

How is this different than a PHD?

The degree I am pursuing is meant to be applicable versus academic. One of the requirements of my dissertation was to directly tie my study to real world problems that can be applied real time to increase the profitability of an organization.

What was the inspiration of your study?

I have been working in the renewable industry for 12 years and during this time have found that the primary driver of adoption is the economic viability associated with renewables. As a resident of Las Vegas, I found it was quite odd when casinos such as the Mandalay Bay were adopting solar (8-10 year simple payback) rather than retroffiting their HID lights to LED (2-3 year simple payback) because the economic merits of each clearly show energy retrofits are the clear winner. I wanted to understand why these highly sophisticated clients opted to adopt sustainability measures that weren't in the best economic interest of their firm as net income is the primary driver of business.

Why Hawaii?

Since I am a strong proponent that economics are the basis of any market and Hawaii has the highest energy cost, one could rationalize that since these consumers pay the most for energy they would have the most to gain by adopting sustainability measures that would otherwise be uneconomic when compared to other demographics. This has been proven to be true as Hawaii has been an early adopter of many up an coming technologies including solar, batteries, etc.

Why the resort sector?

The resort sector is unique in that its energy mix portfolio has properties closely aligning with both commercial (mostly fixed ) and residential (mostly variable) energy usage. This means that my study should have maximum reach on who could find value in my study results.

What is the methodology of your study?

For this study, I used a qualitative multiple case study based on a line of questioning to energy professionals on how they effectively manage energy costs.

What is the conceptual framework of your study?

For my study, I used Roger Everett's diffusion of innovation theory. I chose this theory as renewable/sustainability measures are typically innovative and have a high likelihood of failure. I am a firm believer that innovations fail due to insufficient buy in from the social network of which it is being implemented in.

Hey scroll below to read my abstract......

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