Diffusion of Innovations Theory - Research Paper Example

 Diffusion of innovations theory The theory of diffusion of innovation was presented in the year 1962 by famous communication and social scholar Everett Rogers, which has been widely adopted socially and is considered a milestone for social and communication related organizations. In this theory, he proposed a model for diffusion of an innovation throughout the society by making use of several elements. Also some stages of adoption are described so as to understand the process of adopting an innovation clear and visible. Diffusion of innovations theory The theory and model of diffusion of innovations was unanimously presented by an American sociologist and a communication scholar Everett M. Rogers. Born on March 1931 and died in October 2004, Rogers was the first person who describes a model for diffusion of innovations at social or organizational as well as individual terms that elaborates step by step adoption of something new and different. He deduced this theory of diffusion of innovations from his father’s attitude towards adapting new kind of crops for his field as he was reluctant initially but finally get convinced of new specie’s good result. From this human attitude towards testing new phenomena and things and by studying several other cases of diffusion, Rogers invented a five-stage model of diffusion of innovations, in which he divided the population into innovators, early adapters, late adopters or early majority, late majority and finally those who lag behind all of the priors and do not adapt new idea or technique for a particular new phenomena. He invented the term of early adopter for whom that adopts some new innovation by the society earlier than some other who are termed as late adopters. According to Rogers, diffusion is the process by which any improvement or innovation is transmitted throughout the society and the process takes some time to occur completely. Different elements of the society take new innovation differently and have their own perspectives about it. For example, for a farmer like Roger’s father who was interested in mechanical innovations and adapt all such innovations early and without hesitation, but when it comes to some biological or chemical innovation, like planting improved specie, he hesitates and avoid unless the result proves itself to be the better one, thus becoming a late majority amongst the adopters (Salwen & Stacks 1996, Rogers 1983). Roger explained that there are four main elements which participate in the diffusion of any new idea, these are the innovation, channels through which the idea is diffused or communicated, time taken during the spread and the system or society in which the idea is to be spread. It depends entirely upon the individual how much he/she is willing to adopt the innovation. Again there are five stages for the final adoption of an innovation by an individual. First of all, he/she gets aware of the new idea or innovation, then if he/she finds it interesting to test or evaluate then he/she will accept it, otherwise it will be rejected and the process would end here. If the idea is accepted then it is evaluated by some test or trial, to check whether it works according to the requirement or not. Again, if the idea does not full fill the requirement, then it will not be adopted and the process will get end at this stage. If the new idea or the innovations works better or full fill the requirement accordingly, then it would be adopted immediately. As this entire process takes time, the person who is testing the idea may become a late adopter or an early majority. Hence it cannot be intercepted that the innovation is adopted as it is invented or deduced rather it takes time to ensure about itself that it is useful or not (Diffusion of innovations theory 2012, Rogers 1983). Rogers invented a graphical curve by doing some mathematical calculations for different types of consumers of the innovation and the level of market share with respect to that particular innovation. The consumer curve takes an inverted parabolic shape as it starts from the innovators which are very less amongst the total population, i.e., only about 2.5% of the entire group. Then come those who are early adopters of the innovation and they are too in less amount, i.e., 13.5% of the entire population. Then come the early majority or late adopters who are greater in number since the diffusion of innovation is in the air, i.e., 34%. Also, the late majority is 34% of the entire population as they all adopted the innovation extremely late then those who adopted it earlier. Then finally there are laggards who did not respond to the innovation at all and adopted it even later then the late majority, these are almost 16% of the population. With respect to this statistics and the graph obtained, the level of market share (in percentage) gets higher until it reaches a saturation value of 100 when laggards are about to adopt the innovation. This saturation curve is termed as the S-curve in Rogers’ model of diffusion of innovation (Robinson 2009). Before adapting the innovations, all population undergoes the five stage process which is discussed earlier in this essay, i.e., the stages of awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption. Rogers modified the names of these steps in the later editions of his book and termed these as: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. Only the names of these steps were modified and the description remained same as it was previously described. Rogers modified these names as he was of the view that these are more suited with respect to actual descriptions as first of all the knowledge is acquired about some innovation, then a person persuades or dissuades himself to take interest in that innovation so that he/she could decide whether he/she is going to implement or test it or not. Finally after implementation, he/she affirms or confirms about the usefulness or uselessness of the innovation (Orr 2003). This model of diffusion of innovation by Rogers has been widely adopted socially and is considered a milestone for social and communication related organizations since its arrival in 1962. The detailed explanation of this model as it contains the four social elements or factors, the five stages before adoption and the elaborated stages of adoption clearly depicts Rogers’ grip over the subject and his knowledge towards several factors of society, both on individual and on organizational level. This theory and model has been highly praised amongst the sociologist and communications scholars and the model is highly acknowledged amongst the organization so as to develop some better innovation procedures for its betterment and success. Works Cited Rogers, E. M. (1983). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press. Salwen, M. B., & Stacks, D. W. (1996). An Integrated approach to communication theory and research. Mahwah, N.J: Erlbaum. Diffusion of innovations theory. Retrieved on 8/6/2012 from: Orr, G. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers (1995). Retrieved on 8/6/2012 from:   Robinson, L. (2009). A summary of Diffusion of Innovations. Retrieved on 8/6/2012 from: Read More