A Stakeholder-Based Analysis of Factors Influencing the Development of Grid-Forming Microgrids: A Partial Least Squares SEM Approach

The deployment of grid-forming microgrids has attracted growing attention as a pathway toward improving energy system resilience and supporting low-carbon transitions in decentralized power systems. However, the relative influence of distinct stakeholder groups on microgrid development performance remains inadequately understood in the extant literature. Grounded in stakeholder theory and informed by behavioral economics, this study develops and empirically tests a stakeholder-based framework that examines the effects of government support, investor participation, user acceptance, and utility participation on microgrid development performance. Survey data were collected from 200 stakeholders engaged in microgrid-related activities and analyzed using consistent Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The structural model accounts for a substantial proportion of the variance in microgrid development performance (R2 = 0.647). The quantitative results indicate that all four stakeholder constructs exert statistically significant positive effects on microgrid development performance. Investor participation emerges as the strongest driver (β = 0.399, p < 0.001), followed by user acceptance (β = 0.190, p < 0.001), government support (β = 0.175, p = 0.015), and utility participation (β = 0.170, p = 0.003). Interpreted through a behavioral economics lens, these findings demonstrate that development performance is governed primarily by behavioral and perceptual factors, namely capital confidence, risk tolerance, and demand-side acceptance, rather than by technical preparedness alone. Conventional assumptions of linear adoption driven by technical superiority are therefore insufficient to account for observed development outcomes in complex, decentralized energy systems. This study advances a stakeholder-centered and behaviorally grounded understanding of grid-forming microgrid development and offers empirical guidance for designing governance frameworks that align regulatory structures with market and user behavioral dynamics.