Everett Rogers - Diffusion of Innovation

Diffusion is the process by which an innovation (new idea) is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system

Mass media is another system of diffusion of information

The social group that evaluates the innovations must go through a personal five step process that includes:

1. knowledge (exposure to its existence, and understanding of its functions);
2. persuasion (the forming of a favorable attitude to it);
3. decision (commitment to its adoption);
4. implementation (putting it to use); and
5. confirmation (reinforcement based on positive outcomes from it).

There are five categories of adopters of new innovations:

1. innovators,

2. early adopters,

3. early majority,

4. late majority, and

5. laggards

These five categories usually work in a domino effect.

Important characteristics of an innovation include:

• relative advantage (the degree to which it is perceived to be better than what it supersedes)
• compatibility (consistency with existing values, past experiences and needs)
• complexity (difficulty of understanding and use)
• trialability (the degree to which itcan be experimented with on a limited basis)
• observability (the visibility of its results).

Diffusion Theory- a process of getting a product or information to the public.  A group of experts or leaders go through a process of deciding whether or not the product or information is worthy of diffusion.  Once an innovation is launched, it typically follows a domino pattern for acceptance among adopters.

Typically there is resistance to new innovations.

http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/98_fall/theory/hornor/paper1.html

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/SOS/InnDiff.html