Diffusion of Innovations

1. Diffusion ofInnovations Dr. James E. Folkestad, PMP

2. Diffusion • Is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system • It is a special type of communication, in which the messages are about a new idea • The newness includes a degree of uncertainty • It includes social change

3. Communication • Is a process in which we create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding • Can be either a convergence or divergence of individuals

4. Uncertainty • Implies a lack of predictability, of structure, of information • Information is a means of reducing uncertainty

5. Social change • When new ideas are diffused social change occurs • More than just a “beneficial innovation” is necessary for its diffusion to occur • Example: Dvorak Keyboard

6. Four Main Elements of Diffusion • Innovation • Communication channels • Time • Social System

7. 1) Innovation • Is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption • Example: Solid Modeling

8. Innovation-Decision Process • Information-seeking and information processing activity in which the individual is motivated to reduce uncertainty about the advantages and disadvantages of the innovation • If a new idea is used by an individual (innovator), further evaluative information about its effects is obtained

9. Components of Technology • Hardware: consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as a material or physical object • Software: consisting of the information base for the tool • Sometimes a technology can entirely be composed of information • Examples: JIT, Lean • These innovations have a lower degree of observability and thus a slower rate of innovation

10. Characteristics of Innovation • Include: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability • Research indicates these five characteristics are the most important in explaining the rate of adoption • As perceived by individuals, help to explain the innovations different rates of adoption

11. Rate of adoption

12. Relative advantage • Is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes • Why does Rogers use the work perceived in the definition? • May include economic terms, social prestige, convenience, satisfaction • Is “objective advantage” critical for adoption?

13. Compatibility • Is the degree to which innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of adopters • Example: Rapid Solidification Process (RSP) • An incompatible innovation often requires the prior adoption of a new value system which is a relatively slow process • Example: water boiling in the Peruvian village of Los Molinas • Other examples?

14. Complexity • Is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use • New ideas that are simpler to understand are adopted more rapidly than innovations that require the adopter to develop new skills and understandings

15. Trialability • Is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis • Represents less uncertainty to the individual who is considering it for adoption • Example: Ten-county Cooperative database system

16. Observability • Is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others • The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation, the more likely they are to adopt it • Example: Solar adopters – located together • Friends and neighbors of the adopter gather innovation-evaluation information

17. 2) Communication Channels • Diffusion is a particular type of communication in which the message content that is exchanged is concerned with a new idea • Studies show that most individuals do not evaluate an innovation on the basis of scientific studies* • Instead, most people depend mainly upon a subjective evaluation of an innovation that is conveyed to them from other individuals likethemselves who have previously adopted the innovation • So diffusion is a very social process *often the very first adopters use objective scientific studies

18. Homophilous • Individuals that are similar • Beliefs, education, social status, etc. • Communication occurs when two or more individuals are homophilous • Problem in the diffusion of innovations is that the participants are usually quite heterophilous = ineffective communication

19. 3) Time • Third element in the diffusion process • Three time elements within research • Innovation-decision process • Innovativeness of a unit of adoption • Innovation’s rate of adoption in a system

20. Innovation-Decision Process • Five main steps • Knowledge – learn about the innovation • Persuasion – form a favorable or unfavorable attitude • Decision – engage in activities that lead to a choice to adopt or reject the innovation • Implementation – put the innovation to use • Confirmation – seeks reinforcement of an innovation-decision that has already been made

21. Innovativeness and adopter categories • Adopter categories 1) Innovators 2) Early adopters 3) Early majority 4) Late Majority 5) Laggards

22. Innovators • Active information-seekers • High degree of mass media exposure • Interpersonal networks extend over a wide area • Cope with higher levels of uncertainty • Can not depend on subjective evaluations of the innovation from other members of their social system

23. Rate of adoption • Is the relative speed with which an innovation is adopted by members of the social system • S-shaped curve • Variation in the slope of the “S” from innovation to innovation

24. 4) Social System • Fourth element in the diffusion process • Diffusion occurs within a social system • The social structure of the system affects the innovation’s diffusion

25. Social Structure • Structure gives regularity and stability to human behavior in a system; it allows one to predict behavior with some degree of accuracy • Formal (bureaucratic) and informal communication structures • What social structures do we deal with (in education, construction, manufacturing)?

26. Communication structures (informal) • A complete lack of communication structures in a system would be represented by a situation in which each individual talked with equal probability to each other member in a system • Example: when a group of strangers come together • However, patterns soon begin to occur in the system

27. Norms of social structure • Established behavior patterns for the members of a social system • Can operate at various levels including: nation, community, organization, local

28. Members of a social system • Innovators and change agents • These members are the most innovative • Often perceived as deviants of the social system • Given low credibility by the average member of the system

29. Opinion leader • Able to influence other individuals’ attitudes in a desired way with relative frequency • Not a function of the individual’s formal position or status in the system • Earned and maintained by the individuals: • Technical competence • Social accessibility • Conformity to the system’s norms

30. Characteristics Opinion Leader 1) Exposed to external communication 2) Higher social status 3) More innovative – depending on system’s norms 4) They are the center of interpersonal communication networks 5) Members of the social system in which they exert their influence • Respect can be lost if an opinion leader deviates too far from the norms of the system

31. Change Agent • Is an individual who influences clients’ innovation-decisions in a direction deemed desirable by a change agency • Change agents use opinion leaders in a social system as their lieutenants in diffusion campaigns

32. Classifications of consequences • Desirable versus undesirable • Direct versus indirect • Anticipated versus unanticipated • Changed agents usually introduce innovations into a client system that they expect will have consequences that will be desirable, direct, and anticipated

33. Summary • Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system • Diffusion deals with perceived “new” ideas • Uncertainty is involved • Information decreases uncertainty

34. Summary • Rate of adoption is determined by the characteristics of an innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) • Innovation behavior is imitated • Time is involved in diffusion • Five adopter categories (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards)

35. Summary • Social and communication structure of a system facilitates or impedes the diffusion of innovations • Opinion leaders and change agents are important for diffusion • All diffusion projects have consequences (desirable/undesirable, direct/indirect, anticipated/unanticipated)