Diffusion of innovations
Everett M. Rogers (Author)
This references concerns the history of the spread of new ideas. It explains how inventions are almost always perceived as uncertain or even risky. To overcome this, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. The diffusion process, then, is most often shaped by a few individuals who spread the word amongst their circle of acquaintances, a process that typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990s, for instance, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in human history - and it continues to influence the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the significance of physical distance between people. As thought-provoking as it is instructive, this fully updated, widely acclaimed work of scholarship is itself a great idea that continues to spread
History
1 online resource (xxi, 551 pages) : illustrations
9780743258234, 9780743222099, 0743258231, 0743222091
1039629972
1. Elements of diffusion : What is diffusion?
Four main elements in the diffusion of innovation : The innovation ; Communication channels ; Time ; A social system
2. History of diffusion research : The beginnings of diffusion research in Europe : Gabriel Trade and imitation ; Georg Simmel's stranger ; The British and German-Austrian diffusionists
The rise of diffusion research traditions : Paradigms and invisible colleges ; The anthropology research tradition ; Early sociology ; Rural sociology ; Public health and medical sociology ; Communication ; Marketing ; Geography ; General sociology ; Trends by diffusion research traditions
A typology of diffusion research
3. Contributions and criticisms of diffusion research : The status of diffusion research today
Criticisms of diffusion research : The pro-innovation bias of diffusion research ; The individual-blame bias in diffusion research ; The recall problem in diffusion research ; The issue of equality in the diffusion of innovations
4. Generation of innovations : The innovation-development process : Recognizing a problem or need ; Basic and applied research ; Development ; Commercialization ; Diffusion and adoption ; Consequences
Socioeconomic status, equality, and innovation development
Tracing the innovation-development process : The shortcomings of tracer studies ; Future research on the innovation-development process
The agricultural model
5. Innovation-decision process : A model of the innovation-decision process
The knowledge stage : Which comes first, needs or awareness of an innovation? ; Three types of knowledge about an innovation ; Early versus late knowers of innovations
The persuasion stage
The decision stage
The implementation stage : Re-invention ; How much re-invention occurs? ; Re-invention is not necessarily bad ; Why does re-invention occur?
The confirmation stage : Dissonance ; Discontinuance
Are there stages in the innovation-decision process? : Process versus variance research ; Evidence of stages ; The hierarchy-of-effects ; Stages of change
Communication channels by stages in the innovation-decision process ; Categorizing communication channels : Mass media versus interpersonal channels ; Cosmopolite versus localite channels ; The Bass forecasting model
Communication channels by adopter categories
The innovation-decision period : The rate of awareness-knowledge and rate of adoption ; The length of the innovation-decision period by adopter category 00 How the internet is changing the innovation-decision process. 6. Attributes of innovations and their rate of adoption : Rate of adoption
Research on the attributes of innovations : Measuring the attributes of innovations ; Organizations as the units of adoption ; Postdiction versus prediction
Relative advantage : Economic factors and rate of adoption ; Status aspects of innovations ; Overadoption ; Relative advantage and rate of adoption ; Preventive innovations ; The effects of incentives ; Mandates for adoption
Compatibility : Compatibility with values and beliefs ; Compatibility with previously introduced ideas ; Compatibility with needs ; Compatibility and rate of adoption ; Technology clusters ; Naming an innovation ; Positioning an innovation ; Acceptability research
Indigenous knowledge systems
Complexity
Trialibility
Observability
7. Innovativeness and adopter categories : Classifying adopter categories on the bases of innovativeness ; The s-shaped curve of adoption and normality ; Measuring organizational innovativeness ; Who adopts? ; Adopter categorization
Adopter categories as ideal types : Innovators: venturesome ; Early adopters: respect ; Early majority: deliberate ; Late majority: skeptical ; Laggards: traditional
Characteristics of adopter categories : Socioeconomic characteristics ; Personality variables ; Communication behavior ; Audience segmentation and adopter categories ; The innovativeness/needs paradox and the strategy of least resistance ; Network influences on innovativeness
8. Diffusion networks : Models of communication flows : The hypodermic needle model ; The two-step flow model
Homophily and heterophily in communication networks : Homophily and heterophily ; Homophily as a barrier to diffusion
Measuring opinion leadership and network links
Monomorphic and polymorphic opinion leadership
Characteristics of opinion leaders : External communication ; Accessibility ; Socioeconomic status ; Innovativeness ; Innovativeness, opinion leadership, and system norms ; Do opinion leaders matter?
Diffusion networks : Cluster studies
Communication network analysis ; The strength-of-weak-ties theory ; Who is linked to whom in networks? ; Social learning theory
The critical mass in the diffusion of interactive innovations : The concept of critical mass ; Watching while being watched ; Individual Thresholds for adoption ; Why do individuals adopt prior to the critical mass? ; Networks and the turbocharger effect ; Strategies for getting to the critical mass
9. The change agent : Targeting
Change agents as linkers : The sequence of change agent roles
Factors in change agent success : Change agent efforts ; Client orientation ; Compatibility with clients' needs ; Change agent empathy
Communication campaigns
Homophily and change agent contact : Change agents' contact with lower-status clients ; Para-professional aides ; Change agent credibility ; Inauthentic professionalization of aides
The use of opinion leaders : The role of demonstrations
Clients' evaluative ability
Centralized and decentralized diffusion systems : Advantages and disadvantages of decentralized diffusion
10. Innovation in organizations : Types of innovation-decisions
Organizations : Virtual organizations
Organizational innovativeness : Size and organizational innovativeness ; Structural characteristics and organizational innovativeness ; The role of champions
The innovation process in organizations
Stages in the innovation process : Agenda-setting ; Matching ; Redefining/restructuring ; Clarifying ; Routinizing
New communication technologies in organizations
11. Consequences of innovations: Studying consequences
Classifications of consequences : Desirable versus undesirable consequences ; Direct versus indirect consequences ; Anticipated versus unanticipated consequences
Form, function, and meaning of an innovation
Achieving a dynamic equilibrium
Equality in the consequences of innovations : The communication effects gap
Gap-widening consequences of the diffusion of innovations ; Social structure and the equality of consequences ; Strategies for narrowing gaps ; Wider gaps are not inevitable
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011