Integrating Models of Diffusion of Innovations: A Conceptual Framework

2002/07/28 by Barbara Wejnert · 4 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Mathematics · #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences #Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting #Context (archaeology) #Component (thermodynamics) #Diffusion #Conceptual framework #Variables #Diffusion of innovations #Function (biology) #Position (finance) #Innovation diffusion #Knowledge management #Business #Econometrics #Marketing #Sociology #Computer science #Economics #Social science #Mathematics #Statistics #Geography

paper · doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141051

openalex publication_date 2002/07/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03

Abstract

▪ Abstract This chapter provides a conceptual framework for integrating the array of variables defined in diffusion research to explicate their influence on an actor's decision to adopt an innovation. The framework groups the variables into three major components. The first component includes characteristics of the innovation itself, within which two sets of variables are defined concerning public versus private consequences and benefits versus costs of adoption. A second component involves the characteristics of innovators (actors) that influence the probability of adoption of an innovation. Within this component six sets of variables concern societal entity of innovators (either people, organizations, states, etc.), familiarity with the innovation, status characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics, position in social networks, and personal qualities. The third component involves characteristics of the environmental context that modulate diffusion via structural characteristics of the modern world. These latter characteristics incorporate four sets of variables: geographical settings, societal culture, political conditions, and global uniformity. The concluding analysis highlights the need in diffusion research to incorporate more fully (a) the interactive character of diffusion variables, (b) the gating function of diffusion variables, and (c) effects of an actor's characteristics on the temporal rate of diffusion.

Citations

• Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony
• Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technological Change
• The Origins and Development of the Diffusion of Innovations Paradigm as an Example of Scientific Growth
• State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis
• Structural equivalence of individuals in social networks
• Institutional conditions for diffusion
• Threshold Models of Collective Behavior
• The Contagiousness of Aircraft Hijacking
• The Ideology of Childhood and the State: Rules Distinguishing Children in National Constitutions, 1870-1970
• The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields

Cited by

• When conservation goes viral: The diffusion of innovative biodiversity conservation policies and practices
• The Global Diffusion of Regulatory Agencies
• Fostering innovation in sustainable tourism
• Diffusion of innovations [wikipedia]