Diffusion of Innovations (DOI)

Theory
By Anjulika Ghoshal
Mphil Scholar
SOJNMS
 About the theory
• Profound by Everett Rogers
• Explains how, why and at what rate new
technology or idea us adopted and
implemented
• Diffusion- communication of innovation
• Adoption- usage of innovation
• Newness in idea- special character of diffusion
• Analysis of uncertainty in a situation
 Contributions in the theory
• 1903- Gabriel Tarde- French Judge, Laws of
Imitation (now known as adoption of
innovation)
• Anthropologists-Germany- Austria
Early Sociology (1920 & 1940) (Linear and
sequential process)
Rural Sociology- (Hybrid Corn Study)
 Hybrid Corn Study
• Ryan and Gross (1943)
• Diffusion of hybrid corn seed in two Iowa farming
communities
• individuals as the unit of decision making and
adoption as the key dependent variable in
diffusion research
• End of the 1960s, diffusion as a research
paradigm spread from rural sociology to
communication, education, public health, and
other fields.
Communication and Diffusion Studies

• Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver (1949)

created the revolutionary book “The
Mathematical Theory of Communication”
• Human Communication
• Early concerns of communication researchers
was the diffusion of news, events carried by
the mass media.
 Other sections of Society
• Glazer and Montgomery (1980) carried out a search in
economics, marketing, and general management
• Professor Hagerstrand (1952, 1953) pioneered a
simulation approach to investigating how spatial
distance affected diffusion.
• In 1960s, the medical innovation adoption study by
Coleman, Katz, and Menzel (1966). It was found that
doctors’ communication with other doctors influenced
the individual doctors’ adoption of the antibiotic
tetracycline as an innovation.
• Education- educationists, teachers, Organisations,
Educational cost per pupil
 The 5 editions by Rogers
• Rogers’s first edition of Diffusion of Innovations
(1962) -based on dissertation authored in rural
sociology
• Rogers updated his study in 1971 with
Shoemaker, the title of the book was
“Communication of Innovations: A Cross-Cultural
Approach”.
• In 1983, the third edition came with original title.
• The fourth edition in 1995 (original title)
• the final edition in the year 2003.
 Basic Concepts and Constructs
• There are four elements in the Diffusion of
Innovations- Innovation, Communication
Channels, Over Time, Social system.
• Innovation- An innovation is an idea, practice,
or object which is perceived as new.
• Communication- Information is exchanged
concerned with new ideas.
 Continued……
• Over Time- there are three dimensions of the
concept of Time in the theory
the innovation-decision process- from the first
knowledge of an innovation till its adoption or
rejection
innovativeness of an individual i.e., the
relative earliness/lateness with which an
innovation is adopted
measurement of the number of members of
the system who adopt the innovation in a
given time period.
 continued
• Social System- It is defined as a group of
interrelated units which are engaged in any
joint problem solving process in order to
accomplish a common goal. The members of a
social system may be individuals, informal
groups, organizations, and/or subsystems.
 Rate of adoption and Adoption
categories
• Rate of adoption is known as the relative speed
with which participants adopt an innovation.
• Adopter Categories- Rogers categorises the
adopters on the basis of innovativeness.
o the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late
majority and laggards
o The criterion for the adopter categorization is
innovativeness, defined as the degree to which
an individual adopts a new idea.
 Adoption strategies

• an innovation adopted by a highly respected

individual within a social network and creating
an instinctive desire for a specific innovation.
• injecting an innovation into a group of
individuals who would readily use said
technology, as well as providing positive
reactions and benefits for early adopters.
 Types of innovation-decisions and
Social Structure
• Optional innovation, Collective innovation,
Authority innovation
• Social Structure
 In Latin America, Africa as well as Asia, the social
structure of a nation or of a local community is
often in sharp contrast to that in Euro-America.
 Economic wealth, Power and information are
usually more highly concentrated in a few
powerful hands only
 Electronic communication &social networks

• Opinion leaders have immense influence during

the evaluation stage of the innovation-decision
process and on the late adopters
• It was argued that the widespread adoption of
computer networks of individuals would lead to
much better diffusion of innovations
• particularly in regional and rural areas,
significantly more innovation takes place in
communities which have stronger interpersonal
networks.
 Typology of Diffusion Research

• Earliness of knowing about innovations

{Greenberg (1964)}
• Rate of adoption of different innovations in a
social system. {Fliegel and Kivlin (1966)}
• Innovativeness. {Deutschmann and Fals Borda
(1962b) }
 Model of the innovation-decision
process
• Knowledge occurs when an individual is exposed
to the innovation's presence and understands it
• Persuasion is when an individual forms a
favourable or an unfavourable perception
• A decision occurs when an individual engages in
activities may lead to rejection or adoption
• Implementation- when individual use an
innovation
• Confirmation occurs when that individual seeks
reinforcement of an innovation
 Major characteristics of Innovations
• Relative Advantage- A notion that the innovation or the
new idea is better than what is already there.
• Compatibility- The innovation is in consistency with
values, needs and past experiences of the adopter.
• Complexity- It addresses the level of difficulty of using
the innovation.
• Triability- It is aboou the limited basis wherein the
adopter can experiment with the innovation
• Observability- The degree to which the result of
adoption can be seen by others and analysed.
 Communication Perspective
• Scott (1991) proposed three ways of research
which contributed to the social network theory’s
development- sociometric analysis tradition,
interpersonal relations tradition and
anthropology tradition
• Three key network concepts which have
organized research on the network effects are
• Centrality
• Cohesion
• Structural equivalence
 Network Cohesion
• In the context of media effects research, network cohesion
works as a crucial structural feature which moderates the
influence of interpersonal networks. Friedkin’s (1993)
longitudinal study found that personal influence grows
stronger within more cohesive social networks than less
cohesive ones.
• Although communication research did not shape the
starting development of social network theory, there is a
new trend of cross-pollination between the social network
theory as well as media effects research.
• This cross-pollination stems from the emergence of
computer-mediated communication, which affords explicit
social networks as well as the modes of communication
that bind them.
Development of DOI in communication
perspective
• “In the current communication environment,
there is a converging wired and mobile wireless
platforms—which merge the voice, video, and
data applications in domains—offer
unprecedented choice (Vishwanath & Barnett,
2011).”
• “In this process, distinctions between traditional
elements of Berlo’s linear model of
communication are blurred (Jeffres & Atkin,
1996), and the generalizations about diffusion
processes require continuing examination.”
 continued
• There is a pattern reflecting towards the
integration of Diffusion of Innovation theory
and Technology Adoption Model with some
traits from Uses and Gratification Model also.
• The diffusion process captures the change
that must occur for any innovation to move
from its inception to the larger audience.
• The structure of Communication perspective
developed with the shift in paradigm from
innovation centric to communication centric
focus of Diffusion of Innovation theory.
• As Scott (1991)says, there are three ways of
research which contributed to the social network
theory’s development:
• the socio metric analysis tradition
• the interpersonal relations tradition
• The anthropology tradition
 Social Network Theory
• Researchers during the late 90’s advanced social
network techniques by putting up the block
modeling and multidimensional scaling.
• This method allows researchers to see the nodes
which have similar network positions, or that is
known as structurally equivalent nodes.
• In the scaling technique, researchers convert
social relationships into sociometric distance,
thereby mapping the relationships in a social
space (Wasserman & Faust, 1994).
 continued
• Three key network concepts which have
organized research on the network effects are
Centrality, Cohesion, Structural equivalence
• Freeman (1979) proposed three measures that
indicate structural centrality- degree, closeness,
and mediated position.
• Network cohesion moderates the influence of
interpersonal networks
• The years since the 1990s have seen an extensive
applications of key network concepts as well as
constructs in diverse research contexts, and the
field also constantly gets updated with more
refined network measures and tools.
 continued
• There is a new trend of cross-pollination between
the social network theory as well as media effects
research. In large part, this cross-pollination
stems from the emergence of computer-
mediated communication, which affords explicit
social networks as well as the modes of
communication that bind them.
• The diffusion of innovations has a strong hold in
the study of new communication technologies.
However, the new technologies also change the
landscape where scholars, policymakers, and
planners apply the diffusion model to achieve
instrumental ends.
 Convergence of Communication

• In this process, distinctions between traditional elements of

Berlo’s linear model of communication are blurred (Jeffres
& Atkin, 1996), and the generalizations about diffusion
processes require continuing examination.
• There is a pattern reflecting towards the integration of
Diffusion of Innovation theory and Technology Adoption
Model with some traits from Uses and Gratification Model
also.
• The meaning of ‘mass communication’ has come under
criticism as new communication technologies have blurred
communication boundaries. The new media technology
will require new paradigms to study the media.
• with the development of new technologies as
well as the channels can alter the equation as
interactivity and online access to news and
information, the evaluation in this process
becomes a “hands-on” process.
• In today’s media environment, the trial stage
happens more rapidly and is often a direct
result of media convergence or fluidity
 Recent Trends
• The Vishwanath Barnett’s (2011) edited volume, “The
Diffusion of Innovations: A Communication Science
Perspective.” It represents a comprehensive update on
new directions for the theory.
• There is a development of a convex curve as opposed
to the S-curve. Where there is an emphasis on the
interpersonal channels impacts the diffusion process,
this offered focus for new media research.
• There is another contribution by Dearing and Meyer
(2011) highlights the importance of active adopter
activity during diffusion.
• The latest development in new media adoption,
beginning with the technology acceptance model in
diffusion research.
 Technology Acceptance Model
• This model originated from information
sciences to conceptualise the technology
adoption (Davis& Venkatesh, 1996:Venkatesh,
Morris, Davis, & Davis 2003)
• The model focus on the omact of two
variables- Perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use as the major determinants on the
intentions of usage frequency as well as
adoption.
First modified version of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
( Davis, Bogozzi and Warshaw, 1989)
Comparison of Diffusion of Innovation
and Technology Adoption Model
• The relative advantage variable of the is comparable to
the “perceived usefulness”. This explains how the
technology’s performance is evaluated
• “Ease of use” in the TAM can be compared with the
“complexity” variable.
• TAM was most utilised and applied in the
organisational level where the adoption was related to
the work related incentives. The perceived usefulness
is grounded in the job related performance benefits
whereas relative advantage is more of personal benefit
like saving money etc.
 continued
• Davis (1989) fixated the perceived ease of use
attribute in self-efficacy research. The factor
of self-efficacy influences the ability,
motivation as well as the endurance for
behavioural change.
• Complexity, the factor of Diffusion of
Innovation theory is itself a broad concept
but perceived ease of use is measureable and
replicable construct that leads to frequent
application in the new media nad computer
science.
 continued

• Technology Adoption Model has the ability to

predict what attributes influence the behavioral
intention as compared to the adoption or the non
adoption process.
• Contagion is where individuals monitor others
and imitate behaviour. The posting and sharing of
particular audio or visual content on social
networking sites is an example of contagion
where interpersonal networks plays a vital role in
adoption and non adoption behaviour.
 Research Trends

• The integrated technology adoption model is a

developing trend in the 21st Century.
• comprehensive examination ranging from
micro to macro level
• There is thus a developing trends towards the
study of individual motivations of media
adoption.
 The system level model consists of 6 major factors(Lin (2003)
System Factors Regulation/policy Social Factors Opinion leadership
Technological Critical Mass
culture Media Symbolism
Industry Trends
Market
competition

Technology Factors Innovation Use Factors Uses and

attributes gratifications
Social Presence Expectancy value
Media Richness theory
Technology Fluidity Communication
Flow
Audience Factors Innovation Adoption Factors Non adoption
attributes Discontinuance
Innovativeness Likely adoption
need Adoption
Self-efficacy Reinvention
Theory of reasoned
action
Criticism of Diffusion of Innovation Theory

• Pro-innovation bias- Where it was understood that the

innovation should be diffused as well as adopted by
each and every member of the social system.
• Individual-blame bias- There is a trend to put blame on
an individual not on the system on whole.
• Recall problem- The respondents’ memory reliability is
under question everytime.
• There is an issue of equality as well. There is a huge
difference in the socio economic gap between the units
of the social system. It affects the soread of idea
 Research Pointers

• The system factors might include the policy

changes and other regulations which
continuously interact with the adoption in a
manner which changes the power structure in
the social system.
• Innovativeness or extraversion in adopting the
social technologies is also a factor that may
influence the “Computer Interface”
generation.
continued
• On the other had Narcissism represents as the
predictors of social networking services
posting behaviour.
• Self-efficacy also plays an important role in
determining our attitude towards technology.
• The Opinion leadership and other social
networks plays a crucial role especially new
media technology as the peer help in reducing
the uncertainty related to the innovation.
 Conclusion
• Later research would be better if we move a
bit away from the traditional
hardware/modality based conceptions, to
focus in place of emerging software apps
defined by common functions. The integrative
perspective can lead to expansion of diffusion
of innovation theory to consider the “unique
technical affordances associated with the new
digital technologies as well as the changing
policy environment in contemporary services.”