Diffusion of Innovation

This entry introduces Everette M. Rogers's theory of the diffusion of innovations, some of its research applications as well as its main criticisms. Rogers analyses the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system, which is presented as a sequence of stages, labeled as awareness, interest, persuasion, decision, adoption, and confirmation. The continuum of innovativeness is divided into five adopter categories (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards) based on observations of reality, and designed to make comparisons possible. Rogers's theory provides a useful framework for understanding how innovations are implemented in organizations and his model has been widely used in communication, management, health, and education studies.