Review from Last Week Can you name the five characteristics of innovations?  Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Complexity, Trialability, Observability What are the two types of communication channels?  Mass Media, Interpersonal What is the difference between Homophily and Heterophily?  The degree to which two individuals are alike or different What are the five steps in the Innovation Decision Process?  Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation, Confirmation What are the four main types of innovation decisions?  Optional, Collective, Authority, Contingent

History of Diffusion Research ALEC 640

Diffusion research is thus emerging as a single, integrated body of concepts and generalizations, even though the investigations are conducted by researchers in several scientific disciplines. Everett M. Rogers with F. Floyd Shoemaker, 1971

Objectives  Describe a research tradition  Discuss questions concerning diffusion research  Describe three early diffusion research paradigms  Discuss nine major diffusion research traditions  Analyze diffusion case studies in terms of research tradition, population, and importance  Identify the eight types of diffusion research used today  Locate and analyze a diffusion study  Describe contributions and criticisms of diffusion research

Research Tradition  A series of investigations on a similar topic in which successive studies are influenced by preceding inquiries.

Questions?  Where did diffusion research come from?  How and why did it grow to its present position of wide recognition by scholars, and its widespread use and application by policy makers?  How has the acceptance of the classical diffusion model limited the originality and appropriateness of the work of diffusion researchers?

In the Beginning….  Gabriel Tarde and Imitation  Georg Simmel’s Stranger  British and German-Austrian Diffusionists  Three groups—each group tell us about one of these historical references  What did they do? Why was it important?

The Nine Major Diffusion Research Traditions The Nine Major Diffusion Research Traditions Refer to Table 2.1 in your textbook Each of you will take one and report to the class What did they study? How did they collect data? What was the main unit of analysis? What were the major types of findings? 1.Anthropology 2.Early Sociology 3.Rural Sociology 4.Education 5.Public Health and Medical Sociology 6.Communication 7.Marketing and Management 8.Geography 9.General Sociology

Case Study Examples Case Study Examples For your assigned case study, describe which research tradition it follows, what was studied, and what was learned. 1.Miracle Rice in Bali: The Goddess and the Computer (pp ) 2.The Diffusion of Modern Math in Pittsburg (pp 62-63) 3.Worldwide Diffusion of Kindergarten (pp 63-64) 4.The Columbia University Drug Diffusion Study (pp 65-68) 5.The Taichung Field Experiment (pp 70-71) 6.Stop AIDS in San Francisco (pp 72-73) 7.Diffusion of News of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks (pp 79-81) 8.Opinion Leaders and Mavens in the Diffusion of Electric Cars (pp 87-89) 9.Networks in Recruitment to Freedom Summer (pp 91-93) 10.Pure Drinking Water in Egyptian Villages (pp )

Eight Types of Diffusion Research Eight Types of Diffusion Research Table Earliness of knowing about innovations 2.Rate of adoption of different innovations in a social system 3.Innovativeness 4.Opinion Leadership 5.Diffusion Networks 6.Rate of adoption in different social systems 7.Communication Channel Usage 8.Consequences of Innovation

Find an Article Using the links on our website for this class session, find an article related to our textbook (diffusion, innovation, opinion leadership, etc.) For your article be prepared to: Share the journal you found it in Topic studied Type of diffusion research This may be your article for your article review or it could be a different one. Questions about that assignment?

Shortcomings of Diffusion Research Pro-Innovation Bias Pro-Innovation Bias The implication of most diffusion research that an innovation should be diffused to and adopted by all members of a social system, that it should be diffused rapidly, and that the innovation should be neither re- invented nor rejected. Individual-Blame Bias Individual-Blame Bias The tendency to hold an individual responsible for his/her problems, rather than the system of which the individual is a part. Recall Problem Recall Problem Leads to inaccuracies when respondents are asked to remember the time at which they adopted a new idea. Issue of Equality Issue of Equality Socioeconomic gams among the members of a social system are often widened as a result of the spread of new ideas.

Shortcomings of Diffusion Research Are any of these shortcomings evident in your article? Pro-Innovation Bias Pro-Innovation Bias The implication of most diffusion research that an innovation should be diffused to and adopted by all members of a social system, that it should be diffused rapidly, and that the innovation should be neither re- invented nor rejected. Individual-Blame Bias Individual-Blame Bias The tendency to hold an individual responsible for his/her problems, rather than the system of which the individual is a part. Recall Problem Recall Problem Leads to inaccuracies when respondents are asked to remember the time at which they adopted a new idea. Issue of Equality Issue of Equality Socioeconomic gams among the members of a social system are often widened as a result of the spread of new ideas.

Overview  Described a research tradition  Discussed questions concerning diffusion research  Described three early diffusion research paradigms  Discussed nine major diffusion research traditions  Analyzed diffusion case studies in terms of research tradition, population, and importance  Identified the eight types of diffusion research used today  Located and analyzed a diffusion study  Described contributions and criticisms of diffusion research

“Who Moved My Cheese?” Papers Graded  Thank you all for sharing!  Excellent job in your writing and formatting  Any questions about the grading process? Did my comments appear to you in Ecampus?  If you would like to meet with me to discuss your paper, please let me know.  If you feel comfortable sharing some of what you wrote with your classmates, please do so.