Diffusion of Innovations

Theory
AQA 7003
Chang Liu (S2111587)
 01 02
Background Content
Contents
03 04
The empirical
Application
research
 0 Background
1
• Origin: The rapid development of society after the 20th century brought the issue of
innovation diffusion into focus.

• Development: Early interpreters — the French sociologists Gabriel Tarde and

Pemberton

• Turning Point: Bryce Ryan & Neal Gross's hybrid corn experiments in American field
sociology
 02 Content

Diffusion of innovations theory is a theory developed by

American scholar Rogers in 1962 about persuading people to
accept new ideas, new things and new products through the
medium.

• Definition of innovation (Individuals or other units in the

process of adoption are perceived as fresh ideas, behaviors
or matters)

• The process of innovation diffusion (five stages, "S"

shaped curve)

• Categories of innovation adopters

• Characteristics of innovation
 Knowledge
Five Stages in the Diffusion Innovation
• Persuation Process
Knowledge — Exposure to an innovation, but lack
information about it

• Persuation — Becomes interested in an innovation and

Decision
seeks more information

• Decision — Consider whether to adopt the innovation in

relation to one's own requirements
Accept Reject
• Implementation — Employs the innovation to a varying
degree depending on the situation
Implementation

• Confirmation — Decide whether to continue using the

innovation Confirmation
 The “S” curve of innovation diffusion
process
In the early stages of diffusion, there are few
adopters and progress is slow, as the number of
adopters expands, progress suddenly
accelerates and the curve rises rapidly and
maintains this trend, the so-called "take-off
stage"; near the saturation point, progress
slows down again.
 Categories of innovation adopters
• Innovators: Courageous pioneer, consciously promoting
innovation

• Early Adopters: Respected member of society and public

opinion leader. Willing to try new things, but behaves
cautiously.

• Early Majority: Thoughtful, more cautious; more willing and

earlier to embrace change than the general population.

• Late Majority: Skeptical of change and only adopt

innovations once they are generally accepted and adopted by
the majority of people.

• Laggards: Very traditional and conservative, the last person

to make the shift to new technology.
 Characteristics of innovation
• Relative Advantage — The advantages that an innovation has over the method it replaces.
Such as economic factors, social prestige, convenience and satisfaction.

• Compatibility — The extent to which an innovation is compatible with existing values, the
past experiences of potential recipients and individual needs.

• Complexity/Easy to use — How easy it is for an innovation to be understood or used.

• Trialability — The likelihood that an innovation can be experimented with under certain
specific conditions.

• Observability — The extent to which an individual can see the results of an innovation.
03 The empirical
research# Twitter hashtag use
• Hsia-Ching Chang , Case Study Methodology

• The adoption of Twitter hashtags is a unique form of

diffusion because hashtag initiating adapters can be seen as
innovators who attract or influence another group of users,
also imitators, to conform to the same hashtag.

• Diffusion of innovation theory facilitates the study of the

competitive dynamics between trending Twitter topics with
and without hashtags in a specific time period.
Smart phone in America
• Dr. Vidya, Case study methodology
• One month after the iPhone launch, 2.5% of the
innovators were tapped in February 2007; they
were all former BlackBerry users.
• The Early Adopters (13.5% ) were all using smart
phones by the beginning of 2010. They were
served mainly by iPhone 3GS and Blackberries.
• The Early Majority (34%) were on board by October
2012, just in time for iPhone 4, Android, Galaxy.
• The Late majority (34%) which will run out by
November 2015
• Laggards (16%) would get anyways dragged to buy
smart phones only when they go in to replace their
old phones.
• So, Americans need more innovative smart phones
as more than 50% market is already penetrated.
 Results
In the process of innovation diffusion, we should initially take advantage of the
immediate, rapid and extensive use of mass communication media, and when
people are generally aware of the new thing, we should use interpersonal networks
to spread persuasive messages. Therefore, it is important to combine mass
communication with interpersonal communication to achieve the desired effect.

Advantages Disadvantages
 Quantitative research that is repeatable,  Inadequate consideration of influencing factors,
easy to manipulate ignoring social and cultural differences
 Can be used in many fields, and has  Lack of feedback of before and after opinions
practical value.  Top-down and lack of interaction
 Applicatio
Anthropology

Sociology and Administration

n Scientific and technological innovations

New ideas such as wearing seat belts and policy, law

Improved plant varieties, pesticides

•.
Agricultural Studies

Public health and medical care Vaccines, medicines, prevention of infectious diseases

Education School creation and innovation in teaching methods

Communication News events, new communication technologies

Marketing New products and services such as mobile phones and cosmetics

Other Projects and ideas from anyone

 Example : WeChat Mini
Program March
2017 • Mini program open for individual
developers
2018
• Mini program starts to enter the
explosion period

January December January

• WeChat Mini programs officially • Mini program achieves the ability
released • Code package expanded to 4M to open APP directly

• Mini programs fully enter users' • Mini program market enters explosive • Daily activity of the mini-program
daily work life growth stage grows to 280 million

Early stage of diffusion Take-off stage of diffusion

 Growth trend of Daily Active Users of mini program from
2017-2020 Compound Annual Growth Rate =
33%
DAU: 170 million DAU: 230 million DAU: 330 million DAU: 400 million

2017. 2018. 2019. 2020.

Dec Dec Dec Dec
DAU grew 35.3% DAU grew 43.2% DAU grew 21.2% year-
year-on-year year-on-year on-year

Conclusion: Consistent
with the "S" curve of
innovation diffusion
Thank
you!