In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances--a process which typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990s, for example, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in the history of humankind. Furthermore, the Internet is changing the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the importance of physical distance between people. The fifth edition addresses the spread of the Internet, and how it has transformed the way human beings communicate and adopt new ideas.
网友对Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition的评论
书很好，三星完全是给卖家的。地址的房间号居然能少写一位。
Compared with the 4th ed, this one seems to bring in quite a few newer examples and recent experimental support for the theories.And it has lots of interesting real life examples.Our professor highly recommended this book to us.
内容，毋庸置疑。但是书到手的时候有损坏。封面已经烂了！而且封面上坑坑洼洼的，侧面感觉像是两部分组成的有明显的凹凸 感！
并且纸张从侧面看 颜色明显的是有深浅对比 极不规则！怀疑是盗版！希望卖家给合理解释！！
Rogers' profound journey through how innovation travels through networks was revolutionary when released way ahead of its time in 1962; and quite frankly more relevant and revolutionary than ever within the context of the hyper-connected, yet further divided world in which we exist today. The implications for diffusion are as Jared Diamond said in Guns, Germs and Steel: "diffusion [of an invention or innovation] may be as important as the [invention or innovation] itself". Rogers' work provide a timeless socio--psych-anthrop-ological context for innovation diffusion as profound as Diamond's treatise on the rise and fall of human societies. Being a bit late to Diffusion of Innovations, catching it in its fifth edition it is humbling to have found it just when its wisdom is needed the most.
In 1850, a German educator named Friedrich Froebel labored to implement his idea of a child's garden, a place where small children were removed from parental influences, to instill a joy of learning through playful activities. Within two decades, his idea had spread throughout Western Europe and the United States. Within a generation, nearly every child on the planet was attending or had attended some form of school with a funny German sounding name... Kindergarten. Was it just a great idea that hit at the exact right moment in time? Is it possible to recreate a lightening strike or must we wait for nature to take her course? As an agricultural extension agent for several large Midwestern universities, Everett Rogers had a front row seat to one of the most effective organized diffusion efforts in the history of mankind. American agricultural extension offices taught rural farmers about the best available technology and coordinated the efforts of researchers, seed companies and heavy equipment manufacturers. Nearly unanimous adoption of agricultural technology and best practices resulted in American agriculture increasing its productivity by 335% from 1950 to 1970. In his book, Diffusion of Innovations, Rogers examines the science of working to implement new ideas and technologies.
The book is not a how-to guide, but rather an unbiased view of innovations. By examining the unintended consequences of innovations, Rogers cautions leaders to exercise prudence when pushing others to change. Leaders who do not understand the history and culture of the people they are seeking to change, even though well-intended, can instead cause irreparable damage. While his own efforts in agricultural extension were a massive success, he examines unintended consequences such as the loss of the family farm, over production of food and loss of bio-diversity that were not considered when farmers were being pushed to adopt a new way of doing business.
For education leaders who wish to affect change within their organization and broadly throughout their state, nation and world, Rogers' book will provide reference points and terminology to describe critical factors they will encounter when trying to get their new idea adopted. Perhaps the book's opening quote from Machiavelli's The Prince (1513) serves as a warning. "There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things... Whenever his enemies have the ability to attack the innovator, they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly, so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable." The natural reaction of many people is to fear change and leaders who consistently advocate for change may become outliers, unable to influence the group.
The book uses well-written narratives to explore diffusion case studies making the material easy for the reader to understand. The stories are engaging and interspersed throughout the book, surrounded by Rogers' discussion of terminology that at times can bog the reader down a bit. Unlike many popular business titles like Collins' Good to Great, Rogers resists the temptation to use inductive reasoning to prove his points. By examining failed innovation implementations, the book points out that sometimes leaders do everything in their power and still do not get the desired result. Studying successful innovation adoptions as well as unsuccessful diffusions demonstrates the complexity of the subject. For example, Rogers' examines great ideas that failed to catch on such as the Dvorak keyboard, which is far superior to the QWERTY keyboard. New typists learn much faster on the Dvorak keyboard and achieve faster and more accurate typing skills. The QWERTY keyboard was developed to accommodate mechanical typewriters whose designers didn't want typists hitting the keys too quickly lest they jam the machine. Obviously we no longer have this problem... but the QWERTY keyboard remains the English language default keyboard.
While scientific study of this topic is possible, in some respects it may be easier to study how a musician creates a hit song. However, I recommend this book to those aspiring to become leaders in the field of education. Whether the change is external or from within the organization, today's education leaders face a great deal of change and their ability to successfully manage, control and in some cases resist change will determine their success. As Rogers points out in the book, leading change does not necessarily make one popular. Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten was labeled a socialist and revolutionary by the German government and was banned from his home country.
At its core, Diffusion of Innovation is a book about social change, given Rogers' definition of social change being a sequential process of invention and diffusion. "Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system" (Rogers, 2003, p. 11). Rogers scientifically studies innovation in terms of innovation-development and innovation-decision.
Innovation-development is the process by which an innovation begins with a perceived need. The solution to the need is then researched, developed, and commercialized. Once in product form, the innovation diffuses and is adopted, with the final stage of the process being the consequences of adoption or rejection of a particular innovation. Rogers is careful to note that not all innovations follow the sequence exactly nor necessarily complete all the steps in the process. Nevertheless, diffusion research studies over time generally acknowledge innovation-development in these terms.
Beyond the development of an innovation lies the sociology of who adopts the innovation and possible explanations for their choice. The innovation-decision is defined as the process in which an individual moves from knowledge of an innovation, being persuaded in favor of accepting or rejecting the innovation, the adoption decision, implementing that decision and finally coming to a resolute stance on whether or not the adoption decision was correct and thereby enduring. Perhaps Rogers is most recognized for his conceptual device categorizing adopters on the basis of their innovativeness. Rogers measures innovativeness along a normal frequency distribution and divides adopters into five categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. After a thorough review of diffusion research, Rogers is able to make generalizations throughout his book concerning the personality traits, socioeconomic status, and access to mass communication typical of each adopter category. With a proper understanding of the rate of adoption for the distinct categories, a variety of strategies can be employed to aide in the diffusion of a particular innovation.
While the chapters detailing innovation-development and innovation-decision comprise a comprehensive theoretical construct, the chapters describing diffusion networks and change agents are intensely practical. Contained within these chapters are concepts such as opinion leadership, "the degree to which an individual is able informally to influence other individuals' attitudes or overt behavior in a desired way" (p. 300). Opinion leaders are gatekeepers to social networks. Rogers explains that opinion leadership is the cause for the exponential growth of the innovation curve, as opinion leaders are often the first to spread the message of an innovation to their followers, commonly the early adopters. The business implication of this reality means that in order to spread the word concerning a product or message, the highest leverage first step is to motivate the opinion leaders. The discussion of diffusion networks also illuminates the characteristics of successful dissemination, including the utilitarian differences between heterophily and homophily within networks and the communication structure of interpersonal networks.
Change agents are those people working on behalf of change agencies to bring about a desired change. For readers who sought out this source to discover ways they can implement change, they are seeking to be change agents. Therefore, this chapter is perhaps the most practical chapter in the book. A proper explanation of the underlying realities facing change agents and their targeted audiences provided in this chapter serves as the missing companion in other business books concerning change initiatives such as Leading Change (Kotter, 1996) which heavily favors the day-to-day interactions between agents and their audiences.
Diffusion of Innovation is a comprehensive synthesis of diffusion research and theory. The depth of the research allows Rogers to describe innovation from a variety of viewpoints including adopters, change agents, opinion leaders, and organizations. In one sense, the depth of research is a definite strength of the work. In another sense, however, the breadth of topics and explanation could be overwhelming to the non-academic reader. In the pursuit of comprehensiveness, Rogers investigates tangents in the vein of thoroughness that academia appreciates but that the average reader would consider unnecessary. For example, Rogers devotes two pages to the "inauthentic professionalization of aides" (p. 386-387), and devotes an entire chapter to the history of diffusion research with an additional chapter on the criticisms of diffusion research. Therefore the reader is more than 135 pages into the book before they encounter a probable subject of interest: how innovations develop.
While late-majority and laggard adopters are discussed in comparison to their more innovative counterparts, Rogers does not devote enough time to the reasons for change-resistant networks and the possible hesitancy or fears present in change-resistant people. However, Rogers does dwell on the subject long enough to make an important observation regarding the innovativeness/needs paradox. Given the frequency with which change agencies follow a segmentation strategy based on least resistance, the individuals most needing the benefits of an innovation also tend to be the last to adopt an innovation. Those who are most adoptive--because of the resources, skills, and exposure needed for adoption--generally need the benefits of the innovation the least. The result of the paradox is a widening of the socioeconomic standards gap between the two groups, lending to a reinforcing systems loop, and a continuation of the paradoxical cycle. Rogers correctly points out that if change agencies were to adopt a segmentation strategy of greatest resistance, the reinforcing systems loop would not continue. However, such a strategy is theoretically correct but practically difficult, and Rogers neglects to illuminate why change agencies commonly choose a least-resistance strategy.
Diffusion of Innovation is first and foremost a textbook on diffusion. Though written from an academic perspective, the conceptual framework presented by Rogers since the first edition of this book in 1962 has helped this work to remain a required shelf reference for sociologists, marketers, and change agents for five decades. Despite the exhaustive research foundation of the book, Diffusion of Innovation is still a practical help to leaders concerned with driving change. Business leaders are commonly exposed to the concept of the innovation curve and the adopter categories apart from the context of Rogers' work. In this way, Rogers has added terms to the common business vernacular, and it would behoove leaders to read Diffusion of Innovation to discover the breadth of knowledge accompanying terms so frequently mentioned in boardrooms and team meetings.
This book tends to be cited in a lot of research on innovation diffusion (the process of how a new invention goes about being accepted or rejected by the public). It's worth reading if you're an academic/researcher, a marketing major, or just some inventor trying to figure out how to get people interested in what you're doing.
Beware, this book is very theoretical in nature, but it comes with a ton of real life examples to demonstrate the concepts in action. You're also not going to be given information about applying for copyright, setting up a business, or hoping through legal hurtles. It's more about defining roles in a chain of communication and looking at typical consumer patterns for learning about an innovation and accepting or rejecting it.
A worthwhile book. Hopefully my review makes sense. If you can find it in a store, then just flip through the book and scan the summaries for each chapter. If it's something you could use, then go for it. I like the book.
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