DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS

(Rogers, 3rd ed.)

Key concepts

• change agency• social system• homophily• opinion leadership

Characteristics of innovation

1. relative advantage

2. compatibility

3. complexity

4. trialability

5. observability

Research streams

1. anthropology2. early sociology3. rural sociology4. education5. public health and medical sociology6. communication7. marketing8. geography9. general sociology

Adopter categories

1. innovators

2. early adopters

3. early majority

4. late majority

5. laggards

(shorthand)

adoption (S-curve)

Distribution of adopter types

Adoption decisions

adopt/reject (passive, active)

dissonance? re-invention

discontinuance

The innovativeness-needs paradox

Rate of innovation adoption

Praise

• useful conceptualization (e.g. innovator types, rate of adoption, diffusion)

• repetition• easy to read

Critique

1. definition of innovation?

2. adopter classification is arbitrary (story of organic farmer)

3. empirical focus on closed social systems (e.g. villages)

4. pro-innovation bias (financial ”innovations”, drugs)

5. what about innovations that achieve incomplete diffusion? (s-curve)

Thanks!

joni.salminen@tse.fi