Diffusion of Innovations Book Summary - Diffusion of Innovations Book explained in key points

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Diffusion of Innovations summary

Name: Diffusion of Innovations
Rating: 4.3 (24 reviews)
Author: Everett M. Rogers

Everett M. Rogers

Find out how to increase the chances of your innovation being adopted

4.3 (24 ratings)

18 mins

What is Diffusion of Innovations about?

Diffusion of Innovations is an examination of the many ways that new ideas and technologies come to be adopted by users. In particular, this book describes in detail the stages an innovation passes through on its route to adoption, the different types of people that adopt innovations and how the process of diffusion can be influenced.

Table of Contents

Diffusion of Innovations
summarized in 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

What’s in it for me? Find out how to increase the chances of your innovation being adopted.

It seems that at any time and in any part of the world, you’ll find an innovation beginning to take hold. Whether it’s a new technology, like the now-ubiquitous smartphone, or an idea and practice, such as safe sex, innovations spread throughout a society in a systematic way.

This process is what author Everett M. Rogers calls “the diffusion of innovations.”

In this groundbreaking book, the author describes the process in which an innovation comes to be adopted, whether an idea, a practice or an object, and identifies the five stages in the process: Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation.

The potential user’s path through these five stages essentially determines whether an innovation will succeed or fail. You’ll learn what happens in each of these stages and find valuable advice about how to increase the chances that your innovation will be adopted.

In the following blinks, you’ll also discover:

why some people in the German Democratic Republic filled their washing machines with fruit,
why people in countries such as China or Japan are more likely to adopt a certain innovation just because others are already using it,
why there are fewer and fewer smokers these days, and
why the elderly are always the last social group to purchase a smartphone.

In the Knowledge stage, an individual learns of the innovation’s existence.

Think back to the last time you decided whether you were going to use a new product or service. What motivated your decision?

We may not be aware of it, but our decision making always follows a certain pattern, which comprises five stages.

The first is the Knowledge stage, the moment that we first learn of a new technology or innovation. But what leads us to enter this stage? Is it that we have a specific, prior need for a particular technology? Or, is it simply that we have become aware of the innovation?

Some people actively seek out a particular innovation, such as a specific technology, because they have a certain need for it in their lives.

In this context, a need is a state of frustration or dissatisfaction which arises when an individual’s desires exceed the currently available resources. This need will drive that person – who has a specific problem and a desire to fix it – to ask around and seek a solution.

For example, imagine that you’re a farmer and that your crops are being destroyed by a particular pest. In such a case, you’ll likely actively seek out a pesticide to deal with that bug.

Other people, however, enter the Knowledge stage not because they were actively searching for a particular innovation but because they were made aware of the innovation’s existence.

Sometimes, the release of a new product into the market is communicated via channels that don’t target you specifically. However, you might learn of a product by word of mouth: perhaps a friend informs you about a new device they think you’d be interested in.

For instance, when the latest version of Apple’s iPhone is announced at a developer conference, many technology magazines will provide details of its release and new features. As a result, one of your friends – perhaps a tech expert, always on the lookout for new gadgets – will read one of those magazines and, knowing you’d be interested, tell you all about the new iPhone.

In the Persuasion stage, an individual forms an attitude toward the innovation.

However your knowledge of a product’s existence comes about, once you have learned of it, what happens then? Do you simply decide, without bias, to use that product?

In a word, no.

In the Decision stage, an individual chooses to adopt or reject an innovation.

Having sought out information about the new product and formed an attitude toward it, you’re now going to decide whether to use it. In other words, you’ll either adopt the innovation or reject it.

This is the Decision stage, and there are a few factors here that are pertinent to an innovation being adopted or rejected.

In the Implementation stage, an individual begins using an innovation.

So far, the decision process has mostly involved thinking about the innovation and deciding whether to adopt it. But once the decision has been made to adopt, things change. Now, in the Implementation stage, an individual has to physically put an innovation to use.

But what does implementation actually involve?

In the Confirmation stage, an individual may reverse his decision to adopt.

Say you’ve started putting an innovation to use. Does this mean you’re going to use it forever? Perhaps some innovations are so great that they will last forever, but others you will stop using at some point.

Why is that?

Those with the right knowledge and resources lead the way in adopting new innovations – that’s why they’re called innovators.

When it comes to people adopting and making use of an innovation, there are always some individuals ahead of everyone else.

Why is that?

An innovation’s relative advantage and compatibility drastically accelerate its rate of adoption.

We have seen how our own attitudes and behavior influence whether we adopt or reject innovations. But the innovation itself also plays a role in adoption.

First, innovations must have a relative advantage over other, competing innovations. In other words, relative advantage represents the perceived superiority of an innovation over the original idea that it supersedes.

Being able to test a product before buying it increases the likelihood that you’ll purchase it.

What was the last product you bought? Did you test it before you decided on the purchase?

It’s a fact that innovations that can be tried before purchase spread much faster. This is called trialability – the degree to which an innovation can be tested prior to adopting it.

Innovations that can be observed in use, or communicated to others, are adopted more readily.

Trialability certainly helps you get your innovation adapted. What also helps is allowing people to observe the product in action and communicating to them how a product works.

Why? Because explaining and showing a new product to others helps them to better understand its functions.

Change agents can develop a need for change and thus speed the adoption of an innovation.

As we’ve seen, people adopt innovations in their own way and at their own speed. But one other factor makes a big difference to whether an innovation is adopted: the change agent.

Change agents – such as teachers, consultants, public health workers and so on – make potential adopters aware of a particular need for change, and they build rapport.

Final Summary

The key message in this book:

There are five stages of the innovation-decision process that every potential adopter of a new idea goes through: Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation. Every innovation has certain attributes that influence its rate of adoption, such as relative advantage, complexity and trialability. Change agents should be client-focused and make use of opinion leaders to increase the rate of adoption of an innovation.

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About the Author

Dr. Everett M. Rogers is a pioneer of research on innovation diffusion, and coined the now-famous phrase, “early adopter.” Before his death in 2004, Rogers was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico.

Who should read Diffusion of Innovations?

Salespeople and researchers interested in the theory of innovation diffusion
Anyone interested in how ideas are adopted and spread throughout a culture
Innovators curious about how to increase the chances of their innovation being widely adopted

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