The Contribution of New Communications Media to the Diffusion Process for Innovations - Essay Example

Innovation usually derives from a need to bring about a change or to develop an idea to advance something. But it thrives particularly in challenging or competitive environments where the need to improve things or do better is greater. The free market system is one such environment. Under this economic system, firms have to compete with one another; hence innovation is a common buzzword in management circles nowadays.

However, in the current economic climate of a recession, there is also the question of survival. Thus, survival is the basic urge that promotes innovation. How well that innovation succeeds though is not only dependent on the nature or quality of the innovation itself but also how well it is diffused through the process of communication, in other words, how effectively an innovation is communicated through certain channels. This is what Rogers (2003) in his book, ‘Diffusion of Innovations’, refers to as a ‘common problem’ i.e. “how to speed up the rate of diffusion of an innovation” (p.1). Roger (2003) writes that the way information is exchanged about a new idea “occurs through a convergence process involving interpersonal networks, [and that] the diffusion of innovation is essentially a social process in which subjectively perceived information about a new idea is communicated from person to person” (Rogers, 2003).

The actual rate of adoption of new technology generally tends to follow an S-shaped curve as originally described by a French sociologist, Gabriel Tarde at the beginning of the previous century in his book ‘The Laws of Imitation’. There is “a slight incline, a relatively sharp rise, and then a fresh modification of the slope until the plateau is reached” (Tarde, 2009: 127). Rogers (2003) also classifies time periods into the innovation-decision process, innovativeness, and innovator’s rate of adoption, and defines types of adopters (on an ‘innovativeness scale’) as innovators (the earliest adopters), early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards (last adopters).

Elements that are involved in the process of innovation-decision are mentioned as five, namely knowledge, attitudes, adoption, implementation, and confirmation.