Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. The theory was popularized by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations , first published in The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines. Rogers proposes that five main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels , time, and a social system.
This process relies heavily on social capital. The innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain. Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass. In , management consultants working at the consulting firm Regis McKenna, Inc. This gap between niche appeal and mass self-sustained adoption was originally labeled "the marketing chasm". The categories of adopters are innovators, early adopters , early majority, late majority, and laggards.
The criterion for the adopter categorization is innovativeness, defined as the degree to which an individual adopts a new idea. The concept of diffusion was first studied by the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde in late 19th century [ 4 ] and by German and Austrian anthropologists and geographers such as Friedrich Ratzel and Leo Frobenius. The study of diffusion of innovations took off in the subfield of rural sociology in the midwestern United States in the s and s.
Agriculture technology was advancing rapidly, and researchers started to examine how independent farmers were adopting hybrid seeds, equipment, and techniques. Earl Pemberton, [ 10 ] [ 11 ] such as postage stamps and standardized school ethics codes.
In , Everett Rogers , a professor of rural sociology at Ohio State University , published his seminal work: Diffusion of Innovations. Rogers synthesized research from over diffusion studies across the fields that initially influenced the theory: anthropology , early sociology, rural sociology , education , industrial sociology and medical sociology. Rogers applied it to the healthcare setting to address issues with hygiene, cancer prevention, family planning, and drunk driving.
