Diffusion of Innovations Theory Everett Rogers 1962

1
Diffusion of Innovations TheoryEverett Rogers
(1962)

• How do new ideas, products, and social practices
  spread within a society or from one society to
  another?

2
Diffusion of Innovations

• NEW screening technologies
• NEW self-care products for home use
• Difficult or easy to understand?
• Difficult or easy to use?

Body Composition Monitor Tanita
3
Telemedicine? Two health professionals
discussing a case over the telephone Satellite
technology and video-conferencing equipment to
conduct a real-time consultation between medical
specialists in two different countries.

• What influences physicians to adopt medical
  innovations, such as telemedicine?

4
Diffusion of Innovations

• Helpful for understanding concerns and the
  dissemination of new health promotion tools,
  strategies, and curricula.

Reconnecting To Youth
D.A.R.E.
Blood pressure Monitors
E.P.T.s
Know Your Body
Fit or Fat?
Audio stimulus lasts 5X longer than Visual
stimulus!
5
Key Terms

• Innovation idea, practice, or object that is
  perceived as new by an individual or other unit
• Diffusion (Communication Channel) process by
  which innovation is communication
• Social System group of individuals who together
  adopt the innovation
• Time how long it takes to adopt the innovation

6
Idea/Message/Practice/Behavior

• Beneficial?
• Fit in with values?
• Easy?
• Difficult?
• Try?
• Accepted by peers?

7
Adopters

• Innovators
• Early Adopters
• Early Majority
• Late Majority
• Laggards

Green Line Normal Distribution
8
Innovators

• Cosmopolitan
• Educated
• Experimental
• Risk takers
• Venturesome
• Information seekers
• High SES

USDA Food Pyramid
9
Early Adopters

• Affluent and attuned to national media
• Respected by other members of social group
• Popular
• Educated
• Influenced by mass media

10
Early Majority Adopters

• Attuned to local media
• More resistant to change
• Deliberate
• Adopts new ideas just before the average member
  of a system

11
Late Majority Adopters

• Disadvantaged socially
• Lower SES
• Isolated
• Suspicious
• Skeptical
• Adopts new ideas just after the average member of
  a system
• Influenced by peer pressure

12
Laggards (Hard-to-reach)

• Traditional
• Last in a social system to adopt an innovation
• Neighbors and friends are main sources of
  information
• Fear of debt
• Pays little attention to the opinions of others

13
Diffusion of Innovations

• Sometimes, purchase decisions, or "adoption"
  decisions, are made on behalf of large
  organizations or communities
• When a school system adopts a curriculum?
• When a teacher adopts a course textbook?
• When a worksite health manager contracts for
  screening services?
• When the city council decides to acquire
  recycling bins?

14
Diffusion of Innovations

• The challenge?
• Pay attention to the innovation (a new idea,
  product, practice, or technology)
• Communication channels and social systems
  (networks with members, norms, and social
  structures).

15
Diffusion of Innovations

• Focus on characteristics of innovations can
  improve the chances that they will be adopted,
  and hence diffused. It also has implications for
  how the innovation is positioned to maximize its
  appeal.

HDTV
B/W
16
Five Stages of Adoption

• Awareness
• Interest
• Trial
• Decision
• Adoption

17
Awareness

• Conscious of an innovation

18
Interest

• Intrigue

19
Trial

• Experimentation

20
Decision

• Continues use, quits, or recreates innovation

21
Adoption

• Continues use
• Integrates innovation

22
Features of Successful Diffusion Efforts

• Most important characteristics of innovations are
  their relative advantage (is it better than what
  was there before?), compatibility (fit with the
  intended audience), complexity (ease of use),
  trialability (can it be tried out first?), and
  observability (visibility of results)

New and Improved!
23
Translation

• Mass media quick and effective
• Point of adoption interpersonal channels are
  more influential

Audio stimulus lasts 5X longer than Visual
stimulus!
24
Diffusion Failures

• Innovation
• Communication
• Adoption
• Implementation
• Maintenance

25
(No Transcript)
26
Diffusion of Innovations

• A mobile mammography unit that offers the same
  service as a hospital or doctor's office, but
  saves travel time and money, has advantages over
  a stationary facility (relative advantage).

27
Diffusion of Innovations

• Culturally sensitive AIDS education videotapes
  are more acceptable in Hispanic communities than
  the same materials produced for white or
  African-American audiences (compatibility).

28
Diffusion of Innovations

• A diabetes home testing kit might seem like a
  good idea, but if it is too difficult to use most
  people with diabetes will not use it regularly or
  effectively. But a digital blood pressure monitor
  may be appealing for home monitoring because it
  is easier to use and to understand than a
  traditional stethoscope model (complexity).

29
Diffusion of Innovations

• An open introductory session can help attract
  more employees to register for a multiple-session
  nutrition course than a course that permits only
  pre-registered participants (trialability).

30
Diffusion of Innovations

• By providing feedback in the form of case
  examples or cumulative statistics, clinic users
  can get a concrete sense of the value of a cancer
  screening program (observability).

31
Diffusion of Innovations

• Communication channels are another important
  component of Diffusion of Innovations Theory.
  Diffusion theories view communication as a
  two-way process, rather than one of merely
  "persuading" an audience to take action. The
  two-step flow of communication, in which opinion
  leaders mediate the impact of mass media,
  emphasizes the value of social networks, or
  interpersonal channels, over and above mass
  media, for adoption decisions.

32
Diffusion of Innovations

• Physicians and community leaders are important
  allies in communicating about new practices or
  ideas to improve health. When they reiterate
  information that is provided through mass media
  channels, the chances that consumers will decide
  to act increase.
• If a nurse demonstrates a diabetes home testing
  kit in the health care setting, and supervises a
  patient's practice in using it, he or she will be
  more likely to use it properly at home.

33
References

• Diffusion of Innovations
• http//www.med.usf.edu/kmbrown/Diffusion_of_Innov
  ations_Overview.htm
• The Process of Health Programming
• Marketing Getting and Keeping People Involved
  in a Program
• Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of
  Innovation. New York, NY Free Press.
• Theory at a Glance A Guide for Health Promotion
  Practice