Topic > Diffusion of New Information Technologies - 2428

The adoption of new information technologies, ideas, or innovations is a generally slow and arduous process of waiting for an entire population to conform to a proposed change. The slow pace at which these acceptances occur pushes scholars and professionals to make plausible predictions about its diffusion. One of the most popular adoption models describes research that revolves around the likelihood of community acceptance of an idea or new technology. Diffusion of innovations seeks to explain how innovations are received by a population and how such ideas are spread across groups (Schlein, 2010). An innovation can be any idea, behavior, or object perceived as new by its audience (Schlein, 2010). Over the past decades, the theory has evolved and transformed into various fields of research. Diffusion of innovation theory, developed by E.M. Rogers in 1962, is one of the oldest theories in the social sciences, but Rogers consolidated its claims in 2003, providing what is considered the most comprehensive explanation and review of the voluminous literature (Frenzel, 2009). Although rooted in sociology and anthropology studies, business theorists look to the theory for guidance when performing studies of marketing and consumer behavior, espousing the paradigm for its application when introducing public acceptance and diffusion of new products over time (Rahman, 2012). You can recognize the presence of the theory by its manifestation of three valuable insights into the process of social change: 1, the qualities that make an innovation widespread 2, the importance of peer to peer conversations within their shared networks and 3, understanding the needs of different user segments (Frenzel, 2009). This document offers the... center of paper......ing. In public health, diffusion of innovation theory is used to accelerate the adoption of major public health programs that typically aim to change the behavior of a social system. The most successful adoption of a public health program comes from understanding the target population and the factors that influence its rate of adoption. Diffusion of innovation theory is a multifaceted tool that can be used for many purposes. It gives you a look at why an innovation succeeds or why it fails, and it can also tell you how that innovation spread and to whom it spread over a certain period of time. The culmination of Everett M. Rogers' life work gathers most of the necessary information through surveys and can predict how health communication can spread so contagiously in society: the diffusion of innovation and its studies are a truly valuable tool.