Diffusion of innovations, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Accelerator Physics

Download Diffusion of innovations and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Accelerator Physics in PDF only on Docsity! Diffusion of Innovations Theory Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Diffusion is a special type of communication concerned with the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideas. An innovation, simply put, is “an idea perceived as new by the individual.” An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. The characteristics of an innovation, as perceived by the members of a social system, determine its rate of adoption. The four main elements in the diffusion of new ideas are: (1) The innovation (2) Communication channels (3) Time (4) The social system (context) 1. The innovation Why do certain innovations spread more quickly than others? The innovation, to spread and be adopted should show: The characteristics which determine an innovation's rate of adoption are: (1) Relative advantage (2) Compatibility (3) Complexity (4) Trialability (5) Observability to those people within the social system. 2. Communication Communication is the process by which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding. A communication channel is the means by which messages get from one individual to another. Mass media channels are more effective in creating knowledge of innovations, whereas interpersonal channels are more effective in forming and changing attitudes toward a new idea, and thus in influencing the decision to adopt or reject a new idea. Most individuals evaluate an innovation, not on the basis of scientific research by experts, but through the subjective evaluations of near-peers who have adopted the innovation. 3. Time The time dimension is involved in diffusion in three ways. 3.1 - First, time is involved in the innovation-decision process. The innovation- decision process is the mental process through which an individual (or other decision- making unit) passes from first knowledge of an innovation to forming an attitude toward the innovation, to a decision to adopt or reject, to implementation of the new idea, and to confirmation of this decision. An individual seeks information at various stages in the innovation-decision process in order to decrease uncertainty about an innovation's expected consequences. 5-Step Process: (1) Knowledge – person becomes aware of an innovation and has some idea of how it functions (2) Persuasion – person forms a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the innovation (3) Decision – person engages in activities that lead to a choice to adopt or reject the innovation (4) Implementation – person puts an innovation into use (5) Confirmation – person evaluates the results of an innovation-decision already made 3.2 - The second way in which time is involved in diffusion is in the innovativeness of an individual or other unit of adoption. Innovativeness is the degree to which an individual or other unit of adoption is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than other members of a social system. There are five adopter categories, or classifications of the members of a social system on the basis on their innovativeness: (1) Innovators – 2.5% (2) Early adopters – 13.5% (3) Early majority – 34% (4) Late majority – 34% (5) Laggards – 16% 3.3 - The third way in which time is involved in diffusion is in rate of adoption. The rate of adoption is the relative speed with which an innovation is adopted by members of a social system. The rate of adoption is usually measured as the number of members of the system that adopt the innovation in a given time period. As shown previously, an innovation's rate of adoption is influenced by the five perceived attributes of an innovation. --- (Time/Infected Population) 4. The social system The fourth main element in the diffusion of new ideas is the social system. A social system is defined as a set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem-solving to accomplish a common goal. The members or units of a social system may be individuals, informal groups, organizations, and/or subsystems. The social system constitutes a boundary within which an innovation diffuses. How the system's social structure affects diffusion has been studied. A second area of research involved how norms affect diffusion. Norms are the established behavior patterns for the members of a social system. A third area of research has had to do with opinion leadership, the degree to which an individual is able to influence informally other individuals' attitudes or overt behavior in a desired way with relative frequency. A change agent is an individual who attempts to influence clients' innovation-decisions in a direction that is deemed desirable by a change agency. ---------- A final crucial concept in understanding the nature of the diffusion process is the critical mass, which occurs at the point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation that the innovation's further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining (the shaded area in Figure 2 depicts the critical mass). The concept of the critical mass implies that outreach