2. The Innovation
• An idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by
an individual or other unit of adoption
• “An invention is an idea, a sketch or model for a new or
improved device, product, process or system. Such
inventions may often be patented but they do not
necessarily lead to technical innovations. In fact the
majority do not.
• An innovation in the economic sense is accomplished
only with the first commercial transaction involving the
new product, process system or device.” Freeman &
Soete, p. 6.
3. What is diffusion?
• The process by which an innovation is
communicated through certain channels over time
among the members of a social system.
• In this context communication is:
• a process whereby participants share information
to reach a mutual understanding.
4. What is diffusion?
• Diffusion is a special type of communication in which the
messages are about a new idea.
• The newness of the idea gives diffusion its special character
– it ensures that a degree of uncertainty is involved in
diffusion.
• Uncertainty – the degree to which a range of alternatives
are perceived with regard to the occurrence of an event.
Uncertainty implies lack of predictability and therefore of
information.
5. What is diffusion?
• Thus information becomes a means of reducing uncertainty.
• Any technological innovation embodies information and thus
reduces uncertainty about cause-effect relationships in
problem solving.
• To put this in a nutshell - for Rogers, "diffusion of
innovations" means
• The dissemination of uncertainty-reducing information
embodied in products or processes through a social system.
The Process of the diffusion of Innovations
• Diffusion is a process where an innovation is communicated
through certain channels over time among members of a
social system
6. Four Elements in Diffusion of
Innovations
Four basic elements of the diffusion process:
1. The innovation
2. The channel of communication
3. The social system- among members
4. Time
7. The Innovation
• TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS, INFORMATION AND
UNCERTAINTY.
• Technology: “ a design for instrumental action that reduces
the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in
achieving a desired outcome.”
Technological has 2 components: Hardware (physical
element)
• Software – the information base for the tool.
• A technology may be almost entirely composed of
information. This will tend to slow its diffusion because of
poor observability
• Technology is a means of uncertainty reduction that is made
possible by information about the cause-effect relationships
on which the technology is based
8. Technological Innovation
• Technological innovation both creates one kind of
uncertainty and represents an opportunity for reduced
uncertainty in another sense:
• Increased uncertainty (about the innovation’s expected
consequences)
• Reduced uncertainty (deriving from the information base of
the technology) the individual to learn about the innovation
• One information-seeking has reduced uncertainty about the
innovations expected consequences to a tolerable level, a
decision concerning adoption will be made
The innovation-decision process is essentially about
information seeking, allowing the individual to reduce
uncertainty about the advantages and disadvantages of the
innovation.
9. The Innovation
• Characteristics of Innovation –
• Relative Advantage
• Compatability
• Complexity
• Trialability
• Observability
10. The Innovation Characteristics
• Relative Advantage – over existing technologies - can be
perceived, may be measured in economic terms, social
prestige, convenience and satisfaction.
• Compatibility – with existing values, past experiences, needs
of potential adopters (and their social system)
• Complexity - degree to which an innovation is perceived as
difficult to understand and use.
• Trialability – degree to which an innovation may be
experimented with on a limited basis. A trialable innovation
represented less uncertainty to a potential adopter.
• Observability – Degree to which the results of an innovation
are visible to others
• Re-invention – adopting an innovation is not necessarily the
passive role of just implementing a standard template of a
11. Communications Channels
• The means by which messages get from one individual to
another.
• The nature of the information-exchange relation determines
the conditions under which a source will/will not transmit the
innovation to the receiver and the effect of the transfer.
• Mass-media – most efficient way to create awareness
knowledge of an innovation
• Interpersonal channels – more effective in persuading in
individual to accept a new idea.
• Individuals do not evaluate innovations on the basis of a
scientific assessment of its consequences – rather depend
on subjective assessment conveyed to them from peers.
Thus diffusion is a social process.
12. Communications Channels
• The closer (more homophilious) two individuals
are, the more frequently and more successful
the transfer of ideas between them.
• Problem - in the diffusion of innovation: is
participants are usually quite heterophilious –
thus ineffective communication likely to occur.
• Yet two exactly similar individuals cannot, by
definition pass on information. Therefore
diffusion demands some heterophiliousness”
13. Time
• Time - third element in the diffusion process.
Involved in:
– the innovation-decision process
– the innovativeness of an individual
– an innovation’s rate of adoption in a system
14. THE INNOVATION-DECISION
PROCESS
The process through which an individual passes from first
knowledge of an innovation to forming an attitude toward the
innovation, to a decision to adopt or reject it.
• Five stages in the innovation-decision process:
• (1) knowledge,
• (2) persuasion,
• (3) decision,
• (4) implementation, and
• (5) confirmation.
15. THE INNOVATION-DECISION
PROCESS
• Knowledge occurs when an individual (or other decision-
making unit) learns of the innovation’s existence and gains
some understanding of how it functions.
• Persuasion occurs when an individual (or other decision-
making unit) forms a favourable or unfavourable attitude
toward the innovation.
• Decision occurs when an individual (or other decision-
making unit) engages in activities that lead to a choice to
adopt or reject the innovation.
16. THE INNOVATION-DECISION
PROCESS
• Implementation occurs when an individual (or other
decision-making unit) puts an innovation into use. Re-
invention is especially likely to occur at the implementation
stage.
• Confirmation occurs when an individual (or other decision-
making unit) seeks reinforcement of an innovation-decision
that has already been made, but the individual may reverse
this previous decision if exposed to conflicting innovation.
• At the knowledge stage the individual wants to know what
the innovation is and how and why it works.
17. THE INNOVATION-DECISION PROCESS
• Mass media channels
• At the persuasion stage the individual wants
to know the innovation’s advantages and
disadvantages in his or her own situation.
• Interpersonal networks
• Ultimately, the innovation-decision process
leads to either adoption or to rejection.
18. INNOVATIVENESS AND ADOPTER
CATEGORIES
• “Innovativeness” - the degree to which an
individual or other unit of adoption is
relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than
the other members of a system.
• Members of each of the adopter categories
tend to have a good deal in common.
19. INNOVATIVENESS AND ADOPTER
CATEGORIES
• The adopter categories
• (1) innovators,
• (2) early adopters,
• (3) early majority,
• (4) late majority, and
• (5) laggards.
20. INNOVATIVENESS AND ADOPTER
CATEGORIES
• Innovators:
– active information-seekers about new ideas.
– have a high degree of mass media exposure
– their interpersonal networks extend over a wide area.
– can cope with higher levels of uncertainty about an
innovation than are other adopter categories.
• Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation.
Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have
the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very
social and have closest contact to scientific sources and
interaction with other innovators. Risk tolerance has them
adopting technologies which may ultimately fail. Financial
resources help absorb these failures. (Rogers 1962 5th ed,
21. Early Majority: Description
• 34% of population
• Deliberate
• Adopt new ideas just prior to the average time
• Seldom hold leadership positions
• Deliberate for some time before adopting
• These individuals have the highest degree of
opinion leadership among the other adopter
categories.
• Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a
higher social status, have more financial lucidity,
advanced education, and are more socially forward
22. Early Majority
• More discrete in adoption choices than
innovators. Realize judicious choice of
adoption will help them maintain central
communication position (Rogers 1962 5th
ed, p. 283).
23. Late Majority
• Late majority category - characterised by:
• 34% of population
• Skeptical
• Adopt new ideas just after the average time
• Adopting may be both an economic
necessity and a reaction to peer pressures
• Innovations approached cautiously
– low social status,
– making little use of mass media channels
– learn about most new ideas from peers via
interpersonal channels
24. • Individuals in this category adopt an
innovation after a varying degree of time.
This time of adoption is significantly longer
than the innovators and early adopters. Early
Majority tend to be slower in the adoption
process, have above average social status,
contact with early adopters, and seldom hold
positions of opinion leadership in a system
(Rogers 1962 5th ed, p. 283)
25. Laggards: Description
• 16% of population
• Traditional
• The last people to adopt an innovation
• Most “localite” in outlook
• Oriented to the past
• Suspicious of the new
• Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation.
Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this
category show little to no opinion leadership. These
individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and
tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be
focused on “traditions”, likely to have lowest social status,
lowest financial fluidity, be oldest of all other adopters, in
contact with only family and close friends, very little to no
opinion leadership.
26. RATE OF ADOPTION
• Rate of adoption - the relative speed with
which an innovation is adopted by members
of a social system.
• When the number of individuals adopting a
new idea is plotted on a cumulative
frequency basis over time, the resulting
distribution is an “S-shaped curve.”
28. Rate of Adoption
• Most innovations have an S-shaped rate of adoption.
• But there is variation in the slope of the “S” from innovation
to innovation;
• some new ideas diffuse relatively rapidly and the S-curve is
quite steep.
• Other innovations have a slower rate of adoption, and the S-
curve is more gradual, with a slope that is relatively lazy.
29. A Social System
• Defined as: a set of interrelated units that are
engaged in joint problem-solving to accomplish a
common goal.
• There are also differences in the rate of adoption
for the same innovation in different social systems.
• This sharing of a common objective binds the
system together.
30. A Social System
• The social structure of the system affects the
innovation’s diffusion in several ways. Here
we deal with:
– how the system’s social structure affects
diffusion,
– the effect of norms on diffusion,
– the roles of opinion leaders
31. Social Structure
• To the extent that the units in a social system
are not all identical in their behaviour,
structure exists in the system.
• Structure - the patterned arrangements of the
units in a system.
32. Social Structure
• Structure gives regularity and stability to human
behaviour in a system; it allows one to predict
behaviour with some degree of accuracy.
• Structure represents one type of information, in that it
decreases uncertainty.
• An illustration of this predictability - is structure in a
bureaucratic organisation. Here there is a well-
developed social structure, consisting of hierarchical
positions, giving officials in higher-ranked positions the
right to issue orders to individuals of lower rank. They
expect their orders to be carried out.
33. Social Structure
• Such patterned social relationships among the members of
a system constitute social structure, one type of structure.
• We can also have a communication structure, defined as:
• The differentiated elements that can be recognized in the
patterned communication flows in a system.
• Communications structures are interpersonal networks
linking a system’s members, determining who interacts with
whom and under what circumstances.
34. Social Structure
• A complete lack of communication structure in a system
would be represented by a situation in which each individual
talked with equal probability to each other member of the
system.
• Class in society can be regarded as both a social structure
but also a communications structure.
• Regularized patterns of communication within a system
predict, in part, the behaviour of individual members of the
social system, including when they adopt an innovation.
• Thus it is difficult to study how innovations spread without
some knowledge of the social structures in which potential
adopters are located.
35. SYSTEM NORMS AND DIFFUSION
• Norms are: the established behaviour patterns for the
members of a social system. They define a range of
tolerable behaviour and serve as a guide or a standard for
the members’ behaviour in a social system.
• The norms of a system tell an individual what behaviour is
expected. Thus a system’s norms can be a barrier to
change.
• Norms can operate at the level of a nation, a religious
community, an organisation, or a local system like a village.
36. OPINION LEADERS
• Most innovative member of a system often
perceived as a deviant from the social
system
• Thus is accorded low credibility by the
average members of the system.
• Thus their role in diffusion is likely to be
limited.
37. OPINION LEADERS
• Other members of the system function as
opinion leaders. They provide information
and advice about innovations to many in the
system.
• They are opinion leaders
• Opinion leadership is: the degree to which an
individual is able to influence other
individuals’ attitudes/behaviour.
38. OPINION LEADERS
• This leadership is not a function of the individual’s formal
position.
• Opinion leadership is earned and maintained by the
individual’s
– technical competence,
– social accessibility, and
– conformity to the system’s norms.
Thus when the social system is oriented to change, the
opinion leaders are quite innovative; but when the system’s
norms are opposed to change, the behaviour of the
leaders also reflects this norm
39. OPINION LEADERS
• . When compared with their followers
opinion leaders are:
– are more exposed to all forms of external
communication,
– have somewhat higher social status, and
– are more innovative (although the exact degree
of innovativeness depends, in part, on the
system’s norms).
40. OPINION LEADERS
• Opinion leaders occupy an influential position
in their system’s communication structure:
• They are at the centre of interpersonal
communication networks - interconnected
individuals linked by patterned flows of
information.
– END-
