Rogers classified individuals into five groups in the technology adoption life cycle: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Innovators are willing to take risks and have the highest social status and financial liquidity. Early adopters have high social status and influence opinions. The early majority adopt after early adopters when more people are using the technology, while the late majority need most people to adopt before doing so and are more doubtful. Laggards are last to adopt and focused on traditions.

1. Technology Adoption Life
Cycle
Mr. Roshan Bhattarai
Kathmandu, Nepal

2. Technology Adoption Life Cycle
• The technology adoption life cycle typically occurs as in the
shape given below because customers respond to new
products in different ways
• people have different levels of readiness for adopting
new innovations and that the characteristics of a product
affect overall adoption
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3. • Rogers classified individuals into five groups:
– innovators,
– early adopters,
– early majority,
– late majority, and
– laggards.
• In the curve, innovators occupy 2.5%, early adopters
13.5%, early majority 34%, late majority 34%, and
laggards 16%
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4. Adopter category
Innovators
• Innovators are :
– willing to take risks,
– have the highest social status,
– have financial liquidity,
– have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction
with other innovators
• Their risk tolerance allows them to adopt technologies
that may ultimately fail
• Financial resources help absorb these failures
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5. Early adopters
• These individuals have the highest degree of opinion
leadership among the adopter categories
• They have:
– higher social status,
– financial liquidity,
– advanced education
• more socially forward than late adopters
• more tactful in adoption choices than innovators
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6. Early Majority
• They adopt an innovation after significantly longer time
than the innovators and early adopters
• Early Majority have
– above average social status,
– contact with early adopters and
– relatively hold lower positions of opinion leadership in a
system
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7. Late Majority
• They adopt an innovation after the average participant
• approach an innovation with a high degree of doubt and
after the majority of society has adopted the innovation
• They are typically
– doubtful about an innovation,
– have below average social status,
– little financial liquidity,
– in contact with others in late majority and early majority and
– very little opinion leadership
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8. Laggards
• They are the last to adopt an innovation
• individuals in this category show no opinion leadership
• These individuals typically have
– an hatred to change-agents
– tend to be focused on "traditions",
– lowest social status,
– lowest financial liquidity,
– oldest among adopters, and
– in contact with only family and close friends
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