Diffusion of Innovations: An Up-To-Date Review and Commentary

Abstract

Research on the diffusion of innovations today represents one of the largest single areas of behavioral science research, but during the 1970s a number of criticisms have been directed at diffusion research. The diffusion of innovations often leads to wider socio-economic and informational gaps within an audience, especially in developing nations. One result of these criticisms is that diffusion scholars are now rethinking certain aspects of the classical diffusion model, extending it, for example, to investigations of the innovation process in organizations. Recent studies of re-invention suggest that the innovation should not always be regarded as an invariant in the diffusion process.