diffusion of innovation

1.Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being better thanthe idea it supersedes(取代). The degree of relative advantage is often expressed as economic profitability, social prestige, or other benefits. The relative advantage of an innovation, as perceived by members of social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption.Preventive innovations: a preventive innovation has a particularly slow rate of adoption because individuals have difficulties in perceiving its relative advantage.Effects of incentives: many change agencies award incentives or subsidies to clients to speed up the rate of adoption of innovations. The main function is to increase the degree of relative advantage of the new idea. It can take a variety of form: 1) Adopter versus diffuser incentives 2) individual versus system incentives 3) positive versus negative incentives 4) monetary versus nonmonetary incentives 5) immediate versus delayed incentives.Incentives increase the rate of adoption of an innovation: adopter incentives increase relative advantage and infuser incentives increase the observability with which an innovation is perceived.Adopter incentives lead to adoption of an innovation by individuals different from those who would otherwise adopt.Although incentives increase the quantity of adopters of an innovation, the quality of such adoption decisions may be relatively low, limiting the intended consequences of an adoption.Mandates for adoptionpatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with theexisting values, and needs of potential adopters. An idea that is more compatible is less uncertain to the potential adopter, and fits more closely with the individual’s life situation.An innovation can be compatible or incompatible (1)with sociocultural value and beliefs (2) with previously introduced ideas, or (3)with client needs for the innovation. The compatibility of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption. Past diffusion research suggests that compatibility may be of relatively less importance in predicting rate of adoption than relative advantage.Compatibility withvalues and beliefs: an innovation’s incompatibility wi th cultural values can block its adoption.Compatibility with previously introduced ideas: an innovation may be compatible not only with deeply imbedded cultural values but also with previously adopted ideas. Compatibility of an innovation with a proceeding idea can either speed up or retard its rate of adoption.However, presumed compatibility with a previously introduced idea can cause overadoption or misadoption. The rate of adoption of a new idea is affected by the old, idea that it supersedes. Obviously, however, if a new idea were completely congruent with existing practice, there would be no innovation, at least in the minds of the potential adopters. In other words, the more compatible an innovation is, the less of a change in behavior it represents. How useful, then, is the introduction of a very highly compatible innovation?Quite useful, perhaps, if the compatible innovation is seen as the first step in a series of innovations that are to be introduced sequentially. The compatible innovation can pave the way for later, less compatible innovations.Innovation negativism is the degree to which one innovation's failure conditions a potential adopter to reject future innovations. When oneidea fails, potential adopters are conditioned to view all future innovations with apprehension.Compatibility with needs: One dimension of the compatibility of an innovation is the degree to which it meets a felt need.Change agents seek to determine the needs of their clients, and then to recommend innovations that fulfill these needs.Potential adopters may not recognize that they have a need for an innovation until they are aware of the new idea or of its consequences. In these cases, change agents may seek to generate needs among their clients but this must be done carefully or else the felt needs upon which a diffusion campaign is based may be only a reflection of the change agent's needs, rather than those of clients. Thus one dimension of compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as meeting the needs of the client system. When felt needs are met. a faster rate of adoption usually occurs.Technology clusters: a technology cluster consists of one or more distinguishable elements of technology that are perceivedas being interrelated. The boundaries around any given innovation are not often clear-cut or distinct. If this is the case, a change agency may find it useful to promote a cluster or package of innovations to clients, rather than to treat each new idea separately.Naming an innovation: the name given to an innovation often affects its perceived compatibility, and therefore its rate of adoption. We recommend such a receiver-oriented, empirical approach to naming an innovation, so that the word symbol for a new idea has the desired meaning for the intended audience.Positioning an innovation: A basic assumption of the positioning strategy, based on market research, formative evaluation, and on social marketing, is that an individual will behave toward a new idea in a similar manner to the way the individual behaves toward other ideas that are perceived as similar to the new idea. The positioning of an innovation rests on accurately measuring its compatibility with previous ideas.One special kind of positioning research is conducted to provide guidance to R&D activities on what kind of innovations to produce.Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Change agents and others who introduce an innovation often commit the empty vessels fallacy by assuming that potential adopters are blank slates who lack a relevant experience with which to associate the new idea, thus introducing an innovation that is perceived as incompatible with the ideas that it seeks to replaceChange agents frequently overlook the fact that almost every innovation is evaluated by clients in terms of their prior experience with something similar. The innovation may be "new wine,"but it is poured into old bottles. The solution to the empty vessels fallacy is for a change agent to understand her or his clients' prior experiences with the practice that the innovation replaces. So an effective change agent must comprehend his clients' indigenous knowledge systems.plexity: Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relativelydifficult to understand and use.Any new idea may be classified on the complexity-simplicity continuum.The complexity of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is negatively related to its rate of adoption.4.Trialability: Trialability is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on alimited basis. New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan are generally adoptedmore rapidly than innovations that are not divisible.Some innovations are more difficult to divide for trial than are others.The trialability of an innovation, as perceived by members ofa social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption.Relatively earlier adopters of aninnovation perceive trialability as more important than do later adopters.5.Observability: Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible toothers.The results of some ideas are easily observed and communicated to others, whereas some innovations are difficult to observe or to describe to others.The observability of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption.Rate of adoption is the relative speed with which an innovation is adopted by members of a social system.In addition to the perceived attributes of an innovation, such other variables affect its rate of adoption as (1) the type of innovation-decision, (2) the nature of communication channels diffUSing the innovation at various stages in the innovationdecision process, (3) the nature of the social system, and (4) the extent of change agents' efforts in diffusing the innovation.。