Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Introduction
Everett Rogers (1931 – 2004) was born at Carroll, Iowa in his family’s Farm.
He was well-known Professor, Researcher, advisor and a former editor for a
newspaper and reporter too. He earned his PhD in 1957 at Iowa State
University of Science and Technology in the field of Sociology and statistics.
He was well known for the book called “Diffusion of Innovation”(1962) in
which he explains the theory of how innovations and ideas spread across the
populations. He says in a social system the innovation is communicated by the
process of diffusion.

Definition
Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through
certain channels over time among the members of a social system (Everett
Roger, 1961). An Innovation is an idea, practice, or object perceived as new
by an individual or other unit of adoption (Rogers, 2003).
Theory
The diffusion of innovation theory analysis how the social members adopt the
new innovative ideas and how they made the decision towards it. Both mass
media and interpersonal communication channel is involved in the diffusion
process. The theory heavily relies on Human capital. According to the theory ,
innovations should be widely adopted in order to attain development and
sustainability. In real life situations the adaptability of the culture played a
very relevant role where ever the theory was applied. Rogers proposed four
elements of diffusion of innovations they are

 Innovations – an idea, practice, or object perceived as new by an

individual. It can also be an impulse to do something new or bring some
social change
 Communication Channel – The communication channels take the
messages from one individual to another. It is through the channel of
 communication the Innovations spreads across the people. It can take any
form like word of mouth, SMS, any sort of literary form etc
 Time – It refers to the length of time which takes from the people to get
adopted to the innovations in a society. It is the time people take to get
used to new ideas. For an example consider mobile phones it took a while
to get spread among the people when it is introduced in the market
 Social System – Interrelated network group joint together to solve the
problems for a common goal. Social system refers to all kinds of
components which construct the society like religion, institutions, groups
of people etc
Who made the decision to accept the innovation? Rogers says that in a social
system there are three ways the decisions are taken. He suggested the three
ways considering the ability of people to make decisions of their own and their
ability to implement it voluntarily, the three ways are as follows.

 Optional – Individuals made a decision about the innovation in the

social system by themselves
 Collective – The decision made by all individuals in the social system
 Authority – Few individuals made the decision for the entire social
system
Further Roger identifies the Mechanism of Diffusion of Innovation Theory
through five following stages

Knowledge :
An Individual can expose the new innovation but they are not showing any
interest in it due to the lack information or knowledge about the innovation

Persuasion :
An Individual is showing more interest in the new innovation and they are
always seeking to get details or information about the innovation
Decision :
In this stage, an individual analysis the positive and negative of the innovation
and decide whether to accept / reject the innovation. Roger explains “one of
the most difficult stages to identify the evidence”

Implementation :
An individual’s take some efforts to identify the dependence of the innovation
and collect more information about the usefulness of the innovation, then its
future also

Confirmation :
An individual conforms or finalize their decision and continue to use the
innovation with full potential

Example
During the last years of 90’s the mobile phones were introduced to common
people even though it was there in market the cost was much higher. Roger’s
theory of diffusion of innovation can be apprehended by understanding how
the people accepted and get used for mobile phones. When it was introduced it
wasn’t something which comes with 500+ killer applications as today it was
merely a portable land line.