Process and Pattern of Diffusion

of Innovation
Diffusion: Concepts
The term diffusion refers to transformation of
culture form one place to another. it asserts that
human are imitative in nature therefore they
tend to copy cultural features from another
culture.
it is assumed that when culture transforms from
it’s a place of origin, it will be modified according
to local geographical and cultural context.
• A technology is of no use unless it is put to use.
the processes through which technology spread
from their initial sources into homes, factories,
offices, and so forth, is called diffusion.
How does technology spreads: process and pattern
• The International Diffusion of Technology:
• There is an understandable human tendency to
believe that technological innovation is largely the
result of efforts of one’s own people. We exalt
native scientists, entrepreneurs, and inventors, and
see in their efforts the major source of our
technological advance.
• Technological innovation takes place in different
country and spreads from its original home to the
host countries. For example:
• . By 1500, Chinese technologists had produced not
only the compass, paper, and gunpowder—the
familiar textbook examples of Chinese inventive
ability—but also had been responsible for such
inventions as the segmental arch bridge, the chain
drive transmission, the spinning wheel, watertight
bulkheads for ships, printing, fishing reels,
paddlewheel boats, the differential gear,
earthquake detection devices etc.
• Europe too could claim some significant
technological advances, most notably in mining and
cathedral building, but on the whole, there could be
little question where the greater degree of
inventiveness had been residing. there was the
successful adoption of Chinese inventions by
European countries.
• The stirrup, which initiated major changes in
medieval warfare and in so doing reshaped the
social system, was not a Western invention, but
diffused from Persia sometime after the eighth
century, although it too probably originated in
China.
• Modern American innovations such as automobiles,
radios, jet airplanes, compact discs, and the World
Wide Web have diffused in all other lands.
Piracy and Clever Copyists
• Technology transfer takes place due to the piracy
and copy. But It is not an easy matter to copy a
technology that was produced somewhere else.
Technology transfer and Intellectual property right:
• a legal system of assuring individual or organizational
rights over the technological product and knowledge.
• The effective use of foreign technologies
requires a labor force with a broad range of
skills. It is essential that native managers,
engineers, technicians, and ordinary workers
are capable of making the best of
opportunities that imported technologies
present. To do so often entails significant
modifications to an imported technology.