Author response for "New directions for diffusion of innovations research: Dissemination, implementation, and positive deviance"

The classical diffusion of the innovations paradigm has faced criticism for reifying outside-in, expert-driven approaches to solving problems and for overlooking and rejecting local solutions. In this article, we argue that diffusion scholars should pay more attention to approaches such as positive deviance (PD) that enable communities to discover the wisdom they already have and then to act on it. PD is an asset-based approach that identifies what is going right in a community to amplify it, as opposed to focusing on what is going wrong in a community and fixing it with outside expertise. In the PD approach, the change is led by internal change agents who, with access to no special resources, present the social behavioural proof to their peers that problems can be solved. Given that the solutions are generated locally, they are more likely to sustain and be owned by potential adopters.

Download Full-text

Institutions, Organizations, Medical Disciplines, and the Dissemination of Research Results

Organization Studies ◽

10.1177/017084068100200303 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 249-266 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jean de Kervasdoué

Keyword(s):

Organizational Structure ◽

Diffusion Of Innovations ◽

American Study ◽

Medical Field ◽

Adoption Of Innovations ◽

Theoretical Assumptions ◽

New Directions ◽

Dissemination Of Research ◽

Medical Disciplines ◽

Structure Of Knowledge

This article summarizes the story of a failure in research, and shows how this failure led to new directions of inquiry. The first part of the article explains how an attempt in France to replicate an American study designed to link the organizational structure of hospitals to the adoption of innovations by these institutions failed. It was not possible to find identical measures for similar concepts in the two countries. Questions are raised on the adequacy of the methodological and theoretical assumptions shared by students of organization. The second part of the article uses French data to explore the relation ship between the pattern of diffusion of innovations and the structure of knowledge in the medical field, a structure which has been produced and negotiated through time.

Download Full-text

Sociocultural memory development research drives new directions in gadgetry science

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x19000979 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Penny Van Bergen ◽

John Sutton

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Memory Development ◽

Development Research ◽

Cultural Research ◽

New Directions ◽

Cross Cultural Research

Abstract Sociocultural developmental psychology can drive new directions in gadgetry science. We use autobiographical memory, a compound capacity incorporating episodic memory, as a case study. Autobiographical memory emerges late in development, supported by interactions with parents. Intervention research highlights the causal influence of these interactions, whereas cross-cultural research demonstrates culturally determined diversity. Different patterns of inheritance are discussed.

Download Full-text