Diffusion of Innovations and Communication
The diffusion of an innovation is the spread of a product, process, or idea perceived as new, through communication channels, among the members of a social system over time. Innovations can be a new product or output, a new process or way of doing something, or a new idea or concept. The "newness" of an innovation is subjective, determined by the potential adopter.
Diffusion Processes
Generally, the diffusion, or cumulative adoption, of an innovation over time follows an S-curve: that is, slowing growing initially, then accumulating quickly, then flattening out as the maximum level of adoption is reached. Portions of this diffusion curve (i.e., standard deviations of the normal curve) can be characterized as types of adopters. The first 2.5 percent of adopters within a social system are innovators, the next 13.5 percent are early adopters, the next 34 percent are early majority, the next 34 percent are late majority, and the final 16 percent are laggards. Innovators and early adopters are usually distinguished by high levels of "innovativeness," a general disposition toward change and trying new things, as well as higher education and higher income, among other factors.
Diffusion and adoption can be measured in a variety of ways: number or percentage of adopters at a certain time, number or percentage of organizational units adopting, average duration of usage, number of innovation components adopted, number of units sold or implemented, level of system usage (such as number of log-ons, messages sent, files stored, records processed), level of satisfaction, acceptance, diversity of planned uses, number of new uses, and so on.
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