These search costs are strongly influenced by the characteristics of energy service markets and by the nature of energy efficiency as a good. Search costs are determined in part by factors outside a firm’s control, such as the existence (or not) of standardized labelling schemes and by internal factors, such as company procedures for gathering information and specifying, purchasing and procuring the new equipment or process. Developing country firms may find it more costly to improve energy efficiency, because an array of economic and political factors often boost their search costs (Sorrell, Mallett and Nye 2011). Low labour costs relative to energy costs (unless energy use is heavily subsidized) in developing countries might suggest that the energy-management overhead would be less of a barrier than in developed countries.