Justice, Trust, and Customer Acceptance in Smart Meter Deployment: A Governance Perspective on Utility Modernization

This extended abstract reframes the deployment of smart meters (advanced metering infrastructure) by U.S. electric utilities as a governance and trust challenge rather than a purely technological adoption issue. Drawing on Organizational Justice Theory, Trust Theory and Consumer Socialization Theory, it proposes a justice–trust–acceptance model in which perceptions of informational and procedural justice shape trust in utilities, which in turn drives customer acceptance of smart meter deployment. The study outlines a quantitative cross-sectional survey of residential utility customers, to be analysed with factor analysis and structural equation modelling including mediation and moderation tests, and discusses anticipated findings and implications for utility communication, deployment governance and stakeholder engagement.