Presentation for doctoral course.

1. DIFFUSION OF
INNOVATIONS
(Rogers, 3rd ed.)

2. Key concepts
• change agency
• social system
• homophily
• opinion leadership

3. Characteristics of innovation
1. relative advantage
2. compatibility
3. complexity
4. trialability
5. observability

4. Research streams
1. anthropology
2. early sociology
3. rural sociology
4. education
5. public health and medical sociology
6. communication
7. marketing
8. geography
9. general sociology

5. Adopter categories
1. innovators
2. early adopters
3. early majority
4. late majority
5. laggards
(shorthand)

6. adoption (S-curve)

7. Distribution of adopter types

8. Adoption decisions
adopt/reject (passive, active)
dissonance? re-invention
discontinuance

9. The innovativeness-needs paradox

10. Rate of innovation adoption

11. Praise
• useful conceptualization (e.g.
innovator types, rate of adoption,
diffusion)
• repetition
• easy to read

12. Critique
1. definition of innovation?
2. adopter classification is arbitrary
(story of organic farmer)
3. empirical focus on closed social
systems (e.g. villages)
4. pro-innovation bias (financial
”innovations”, drugs)
5. what about innovations that
achieve incomplete diffusion? (s-
curve)

13. Thanks!
joni.salminen@tse.fi