Diffusion of Innovation in Practice

To have a true understanding of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory in practice, you must first understand the theory in and of itself. So just what is this Diffusion of Innovation Theory that was mentioned in my previous introductory post? Dr. Everett M. Rogers, author of Diffusion of Innovations, Fourth Edition, defines diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas”. (Rogers, 1995, p. 5)

The main characters of this theory are classified by segments, the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and the laggards. Think of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory as a five lane highway. In the lane farthest to the left (the HOV Lane) are our Innovators; they arrive at the destination first. These bright men and women are the dreamers; the ones that saw a problem and thought of a solution to correct or at least mitigate the effects of said problem. They are driven and narrowly focused. Their passion for their project and its possibilities could arguably be seen as an obsession, therefore making them less likely to effectively spread the message of this great idea out to the masses. One lane to the right is the fast lane, here we find our early adopters. The early adopters are a special group. This group contains our influencers and people willing to listen to the innovators and implement their new idea. This group has been characterized as people having the time and resources to be able to actually take on this new undertaking. They sit in positions of power and/or high social status and their decision heavily affects the actions of the next group. Our two middle lanes hold our early and late majorities. The early majority is directly affected by the actions of the early adopters. They are realists and are unwilling to make any move to change anything unless they can see a direct benefit of doing so. The late majority, on the other hand, are not willing to make a move on their own whatsoever, without a proven track record of successful implementation and achieved benefit by the early majority and even still, they are heavily swayed by the doubt of our final group. The laggards are in the slow lane. This group is comprised of the holdouts. They don’t want to change and think that your new innovation is a waste of time, or even worse, a negligible substitution for the current tool or system. The laggards must be handled with kid gloves. You need to have the flexibility to allow them to sample the innovation at their own leisure and pace. They also take into consideration the opinions of other laggards. (Robinson, 2009, pp. 5-6)

Looking at these segments, it immediately brings me to the rollout for the COVID-19 cure. The scientists and doctors that worked tirelessly on finding the cure to help prevent one of the largest viral disasters of our time are more than willing to get vaccinated. They trust in the process and the science and believe that it is in their best interest to take this vaccine. The early adopters would be people like President Biden taking the shot publicly to show the citizenry that it is safe and that if he is willing to take it, so should you. The early adopters would be those members of the medical community. Our nurses and doctors, who themselves are science based. They realize that in order to do their job safely and effectively they must take the shot. It has been taken by the early adopters already and a relatively small sample size of people have had negative results or other adverse effects, so they go for it. The late majority would be many Americans in communities with less economic advantage. These citizens don’t trust the government and they have to see that the early majority have taken the vaccine and have had good results over time. They are willing to take it but they need time to see if any negative effects begin to surface. They hear the cries of the laggards telling them that the vaccine has been discovered too soon. Their belief that because it took so long to find an effective vaccine for influenza and other viruses that this could not possibly be the fix and they are not willing to try it at all. They must have time and to see other laggards accept the vaccine and thrive before they would be willing to address the thought of being vaccinated.

Les Robinson’s take on innovation diffusion was that it was not about persuasion but what the innovation meant to the particular segment at a particular time. The social norms and values of a society are strong motivators and differ heavily based upon geographic location, familial upbringing, time and other factors. The innovation must appeal to each group on a different level and affect change based on the particular need of the group.

Thanks for reading, follow me next Sunday for the next posting.

Germaine Powell

 


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