DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY
The theory, diffusion of
innovation propounded and popularized by Everett M. Rogers in his book
Diffusion of Innovation was first published in 1962. Rogers argued that
diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain
channels over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of
the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines. It
originated in communications to explain how over time, an idea or product gains
momentum and diffuses through a population or a social system. Diffusion of Innovation Theory seeks to explain how and why new ideas and practices are
adopted with timelines potentially spread out over long periods.
The central
idea of this theory is that diffusion as part of a social system, adopt a new
idea, behavior or product. Rogers proposes that four main elements influence
the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channel, time
and a social system. Rogers expounded these elements as- innovation is an idea,
practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of
adoption,; communication channels- being the means by which messages get from
one individual to another; time- rate of adoption is the relative speed with
which an innovation is adopted by members of a social system; social system- a
set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem solving to
accomplish a common goal.
LIMITATIONS
There are several limitations of
diffusion of innovation theory, which include the following;
- Much of the evidence for this theory, including the adopter categories did not originate in public health and it was not developed to explicitly apply to adoption of new behaviors or health innovations.
- It does not foster a participatory approach to adoption of a public health programme.
- It works better with adoption of behaviors rather than cessation or prevention of behaviors.
- It doesn’t take into account an individual’s resources or social support to adopt the new behavior (or innovation)
This theory has been used successfully
in many fields including communication, agriculture, public health, criminal
justice, social work and marketing. In public health, diffusion of innovation
theory is used to accelerate the adoption of important public health programmes
that typically aim to change the behavior of a social system. For example, an
intervention to address a public health problem is developed and the intervention
is promoted to people in a social system with the goal of adoption. The most
successful adoption of a public health results from understanding the target
population and the factors influencing their rate of adoption.
REFERENCE
Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th Edition). The free press, New York.
