Tim Kinane

Diffusion of Innovation

26.05.2015

Interesting Items

Diffusion of Innovations

Law of Diffusion of Innovation Graph

Everett Rogers

Adopter categories

Rogers defines an adopter category as a classification of individuals within a social system on the basis of innovativeness. In the book Diffusion of Innovations, Rogers suggests a total of five categories of adopters in order to standardize the usage of adopter categories in diffusion research. The adoption of an innovation follows an S curve when plotted over a length of time.The categories of adopters are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.  In addition to the gatekeepers and opinion leaders who exist within a given community, change agents may come from outside the community. Change agents bring innovations to new communities– first through the gatekeepers, then through the opinion leaders, and so on through the community.

Adopter category

Definition

Innovators Innovators are willing to take risks, have the highest social   status, have financial liquidity, are social and have closest contact to   scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Their risk   tolerance allows them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail.   Financial resources help absorb these failures.
Early adopters These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the adopter   categories. Early adopters have a higher social status, financial liquidity,   advanced education and are more socially forward than late adopters. They are   more discreet in adoption choices than innovators. They use judicious choice   of adoption to help them maintain a central communication position.
Early Majority They adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time that is   significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early Majority   have above average social status, contact with early adopters and seldom hold   positions of opinion leadership in a system (Rogers 1962,   p. 283)
Late Majority They adopt an innovation after the average participant. These   individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after   the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are   typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status,   little financial liquidity, in contact with others in late majority and early   majority and little opinion leadership.
Laggards They are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the   previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion   leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents.   Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, lowest   social status, lowest financial liquidity, oldest among adopters, and in   contact with only family and close friends.

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