Innovation Adoption Curve
(Rogers)

Analyse the rate at which innovations are adopted. Explanation of Innovation Adoption Curve of Everett Rogers.

What is the Innovation Adoption Curve? Description

The innovation adoption curve of Rogers is a model that classifies adopters of innovations into various categories. It is based on the idea that certain individuals are inevitably more open for adaptation than others. It is also called: Multi-Step Flow Theory or Diffusion of Innovations Theory.

The research focus of Diffusion has Five elements:

1. Characteristics of an innovation which may influence its adoption;
2. Decision-making process that occurs when individuals consider to adopt a new idea, product or practice;
3. Characteristics of individuals that make them likely to adopt an innovation;
4. Consequences for individuals and society of adopting an innovation; and
5. Communication channels used in the adoption process.

Innovation Adoption Curve categories

• Innovators. Brave people, pulling the change. Innovators are very important communication mechanisms.

• Early Adopters. Respectable people, opinion leaders, try out new ideas, but in a careful way.

• Early Majority. Thoughtful people, careful but accept change more quickly than average people do.

• Late Majority. Skeptic people, will use new ideas or products only when the majority is using it.

• Laggards. Traditional people, love to stick to the "old ways", are critical about new ideas and will only accept it if the new idea has become mainstream or even tradition.

Usage of Innovation Adoption Curve. Practice

The adoption curve of Rogers for innovation is useful to remember it is useless to try to quickly and massively convince the mass of a new controversial idea. It is better to start first with convincing the innovators and the early adopters. Also the categories and percentages can be used as a first draft to estimate target groups for communication purposes.

Innovation Adoption Curve Forum

- Italy

Viral marketing

"Viral marketing is spreading in the web. It seems to support Accidental Influentials theory."

2

Marcos Freire - Mozambique

Defining extension targets

"When we are talking about adoption of new (even if simple) agricultural technologies in developing countries, if we are able to identify the members of categories 2 and 3 and target through ag extension and tech assistance, it may be possible to achieve better adoption results with less cost then by a non-targeted assistance"

-5

David Locke - USA

Influencers

"The innovation adoption curve addresses specifically, radical innovations. Breakthrough ideas are not necessarily radical innovations. If mass market techniques worked, then it wasn't a radical innovation. If the innovation was going to be inserted into an existing culture or category, it wasn't a radical innovation."

-5

Jospeh Eisner - CAN

Accidental Influentials

"The HBR of Feb 2007 has a short "breakthrough idea article" by Professor Duncan J. Watts, in which he argues that trends in public opinion are not driven by by a few indiviuals influencing everyone, but by many easily influenced people influencing oneanother. Therefore marketing dollars should not be aimed at influencing supposed influentials, but at helping large numbers of ordinary people to reach and influence others."

30

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Compare with the Innovation Adoption Curve: Product Life Cycle  |  Bass Diffusion Model  |  Positioning  |  ADL Matrix

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