Diffusion of Innovations

Background

The French sociologist and legal scholar Gabriel Tarde can be said to be the originator of the basic idea of the diffusion of innovations; he coined and developed concepts that would become basic to diffusion research, such as opinion leadership and the S curve of adoption (although he used different terms). Tarde's work was followed by anthropologists such as Clark Wissler, who analyzed the diffusion of the horse among the Plains Indians—an [Page 308]innovative practice that allowed them to engage in almost constant warfare with neighboring tribes.

All the components of what is associated with the contemporary research paradigm of diffusion of innovations came together in a study in 1942 by Bruce Ryan and Neil Gross about how the adoption of hybrid seed corn diffused among Iowa farmers. Agricultural officials wondered why this technology—which resulted in as much as a 20% increase in production per acre—was not adopted more quickly (it took about 12 years from initial introduction to widespread adoption of hybrid corn). Ryan and Gross discovered that the farmers had to change virtually all their practices in relation to growing corn, including purchasing corn from a company rather than using corn from the previous year as seed (especially difficult during the Depression). This study also suggested that the rate of adoption of most innovations will form a bell-shaped or S curve, with a few people adopting in the beginning, followed by mass adoption, and then a dropping off because of the success of the diffusion and adoption processes. This study became the model for many diffusion studies during the 1950s, conducted by rural sociologists studying a host of other agricultural innovations.

Meanwhile, the diffusion approach moved beyond rural sociology to influence other social sciences, including marketing, political science, education, geography, public health, and economics. A major impetus to diffusion research in the social sciences was the work of Everett Rogers. Rogers earned his PhD in sociology at Iowa State University, where the studies of the diffusion of hybrid corn were done; his dissertation summarized what had been done on the subject. This dissertation became the basis for his now classic book, Diffusion of Innovations, published in 1962, in which Rogers provided a general model of diffusion, appropriate across disciplines and research paradigms.

While diffusion has been studied by scholars across disciplines, it has been of particular interest to communication scholars because at its core, the diffusion of innovations is a communication process. First, the innovation is made known through communication channels; if individuals are unable to find out about an innovation, diffusion simply cannot occur. Mass media and mass communication are involved in the process in that they contribute to awareness about the new idea or product. Interpersonal communication is also critical to the diffusion process: The decision to adopt an innovation depends largely on discussions with peers who have already evaluated and made a decision about whether to adopt the innovation. Today, of course, with cell phones, smartphones, and the Internet, the interpersonal-mass communication link is blurred, and potential innovators are just as likely to find out about an innovation via a computer-mediated format and to evaluate it the same way—through Internet chat rooms and online product reviews.

...