Can you name the five characteristics of innovations?
 Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Complexity, Trialability,
Observability
What are the two types of communication channels?
 Mass Media, Interpersonal
Review from
Last Week
What is the difference between Homophily and
Heterophily?
 The degree to which two individuals are alike or different
What are the five steps in the Innovation Decision
Process?
 Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation,
Confirmation
What are the four main types of innovation decisions?
 Optional, Collective, Authority, Contingent
History of Diffusion
Research
ALEC 640
Diffusion research is thus
emerging as a single, integrated
body of concepts and
generalizations , even though
the investigations are conducted
by researchers in several
scientific disciplines.
Everett M. Rogers with F. Floyd Shoemaker, 1971
 Describe a research tradition
 Discuss questions concerning diffusion
research
 Describe three early diffusion research
paradigms
 Discuss nine major diffusion research traditions
Objectives
 Analyze diffusion case studies in terms of
research tradition, population, and importance
 Identify the eight types of diffusion research
used today
 Locate and analyze a diffusion study
 Describe contributions and criticisms of
diffusion research
Research
Tradition
A series of investigations on a similar
topic in which successive studies are
influenced by preceding inquiries.
 Where did diffusion research come from?
Questions?
 How and why did it grow to its present position
of wide recognition by scholars, and its
widespread use and application by policy
makers?
 How has the acceptance of the classical
diffusion model limited the originality and
appropriateness of the work of diffusion
researchers?
 Gabriel Tarde and Imitation
 Georg Simmel’s Stranger
In the
Beginning….
 British and German-Austrian Diffusionists
 Three groups—each group tell us about one of
these historical references
 What did they do? Why was it important?
The Nine
Major
Diffusion
Research
Traditions
Refer to Table 2.1 in your textbook
Each of you will
take one and report
to the class
What did they study? How did they collect
data? What was the main unit of analysis?
What were the major types of findings?
1. Anthropology
2. Early Sociology
3. Rural Sociology
4. Education
5. Public Health and Medical Sociology
6. Communication
7. Marketing and Management
8. Geography
9. General Sociology
1. Miracle Rice in Bali: The Goddess and the Computer (pp 5052)
Case Study
Examples
For your assigned
case study,
describe which
research tradition it
follows, what was
studied, and what
was learned.
2. The Diffusion of Modern Math in Pittsburg (pp 62-63)
3. Worldwide Diffusion of Kindergarten (pp 63-64)
4. The Columbia University Drug Diffusion Study (pp 65-68)
5. The Taichung Field Experiment (pp 70-71)
6. Stop AIDS in San Francisco (pp 72-73)
7. Diffusion of News of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks (pp
79-81)
8. Opinion Leaders and Mavens in the Diffusion of Electric
Cars (pp 87-89)
9. Networks in Recruitment to Freedom Summer (pp 91-93)
10. Pure Drinking Water in Egyptian Villages (pp 107-109)
1.
Eight Types of
Diffusion
Research
Table 2.2
Earliness of knowing about
innovations
2. Rate of adoption of different
innovations in a social system
3. Innovativeness
4. Opinion Leadership
5. Diffusion Networks
6. Rate of adoption in different social
systems
7. Communication Channel Usage
8. Consequences of Innovation
Using the links on our website for this class session, find an
article related to our textbook (diffusion, innovation, opinion
leadership, etc.) For your article be prepared to:
Find an
Article
• Share the journal you found it in
• Topic studied
• Type of diffusion research
This may be your article for your article review or it could be
a different one. Questions about that assignment?
Pro-Innovation Bias
The implication of most diffusion research that an
innovation should be diffused to and adopted by all
members of a social system, that it should be diffused
rapidly, and that the innovation should be neither reinvented nor rejected.
Shortcomings
of Diffusion
Research
Individual-Blame Bias
The tendency to hold an individual responsible for
his/her problems, rather than the system of which the
individual is a part.
Recall Problem
Leads to inaccuracies when respondents are asked to
remember the time at which they adopted a new idea.
Issue of Equality
Socioeconomic gams among the members of a social
system are often widened as a result of the spread of
new ideas.
Shortcomings
of Diffusion
Research
Are any of these
shortcomings
evident in your
article?
Pro-Innovation Bias
The implication of most diffusion research that an
innovation should be diffused to and adopted by all
members of a social system, that it should be diffused
rapidly, and that the innovation should be neither reinvented nor rejected.
Individual-Blame Bias
The tendency to hold an individual responsible for
his/her problems, rather than the system of which the
individual is a part.
Recall Problem
Leads to inaccuracies when respondents are asked to
remember the time at which they adopted a new idea.
Issue of Equality
Socioeconomic gams among the members of a social
system are often widened as a result of the spread of
new ideas.
 Described a research tradition
 Discussed questions concerning diffusion
research
 Described three early diffusion research
paradigms
Overview
 Discussed nine major diffusion research
traditions
 Analyzed diffusion case studies in terms of
research tradition, population, and importance
 Identified the eight types of diffusion research
used today
 Located and analyzed a diffusion study
 Described contributions and criticisms of
diffusion research
“Who
Moved
My
Cheese?”
Papers Graded
Thank you all for sharing!
Excellent job in your writing and
formatting
Any questions about the grading
process? Did my comments appear to
you in Ecampus?
If you would like to meet with me to
discuss your paper, please let me know.
If you feel comfortable sharing some of
what you wrote with your classmates,
please do so.