Attributes of Innovations

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Attributes of Innovations

• How the properties of an innovation affect their
  rate of adoption.

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Perceptions Count

• The receiver's perceptions of the attributes of
  an innovation, not the attributes as classified
  by experts or changes agents, affect its rate of
  adoption.

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Moore and Benbasat (1990)

• Developed a set of scale items to measure each of
  the five main attributes of innovation
• Methodology that can be used within future
  research

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Relative advantage

• The relative advantage of an innovation, as
  perceived by members, is positively related to
  its rate of adoption
• Status
• Incentives
• Mandates

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Compatibility

• As perceived by members of a social system, is
  positively related to its rate of adoption
• Combatable with old ideas
• Innovation negativism previous negative
  experiences make for perception of
  incompatibility
• Naming

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Complexity

• As perceived by members of a social system, is
  negatively related to its rate of adoption

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Trialability

• As perceived by members of a social system, is
  positively related to its rate of adoption.

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Observability

• As perceived by members of a social system, is
  positively related to its rate of adoption

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Innovativeness

• Criterion for adopter categorization
• The degree to which an individual is relatively
  earlier in adopting a new idea or innovation
• It is a continuous variable so partitioning it
  into discrete categories is a conceptual device

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Adopter Categorization

• Use mean and standard deviation to divide the
  normal adopter distribution into categories

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Innovators

• Venturesome
• Friendships among innovators
• Substantial financial resources
• Understand and apply complex technical knowledge
• Ability to deal with high degree of uncertainty

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Early Adopters

• Respected
• Integrated part of local social system
• Greatest degree of opinion leadership

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Early Majority

• Deliberate
• Adopt new ideas just before the average member of
  a system
• Interact frequently with their peers
• Most numerous adopter category (one-third of the
  system)
• Follow with deliberate willingness in adopting
  innovations, but seldom lead.

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Late Majority

• Skeptical
• Adoption may be both an economic necessity and
  the result of increasing network pressures from
  peers
• Innovations are approached with a skeptical an
  cautious air
• Pressure of peers is necessary to motivate
  adoption
• Scarce resources uncertainty must be removed

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Laggards

• Traditional
• Last to adopt
• Point of reference is the past
• Decisions are made in terms of what ahs been done
  previously
• Suspicious of innovation and change agents
• Limited resources

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Socioeconomic Characteristics for earlier adopters

• Age not factor
• More years of education
• More likely to be literate
• Higher social status
• Greater degree of upward social mobility
• Have larger units (farms, schools, companies)

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Socioeconomic

• It has been show that innovators become richer
  and the laggards become relatively poorer through
  the innovation process

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Personality Variables earlier adopters

• Greater empathy than later adopters
• Less dogmatic
• Greater ability to deal with abstractions
• Greater intelligence
• More favorable attitude toward change
• Ability to cope with uncertainty
• Have a favorable attitude toward science
• Less fatalistic (ability to control their future)
• Higher aspirations

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Communication Behavior earlier adopters

• More social participation
• More highly interconnected
• More change agent contact
• Greater exposure to mass media
• Greater exposure to interpersonal communication
  channels
• Seek info. About innovations more actively
• Higher degree of opinion leadership

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Summary

• Adopter categories are the classification of
  members of a social system on the basis of
  innovativeness
• Dominant attributes are
• Innovators venturesome
• Early adopters respect
• Early majority deliberate
• Late majority skeptical
• Laggards traditional

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Summary

• Generally early adopters have higher economic
  status that late adopters
• Variables include
• Socioeconomic
• Personality
• Communication
• Change agent can use these adopter categories for
  audience segmentation when devising an approach
  to influencing various individuals