scholarly journals Community Reaction towards Social Innovation: A Discussion of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory in Consideration of Community Emotional Response

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-46
Author(s):  
Bryan Hains ◽  
Kristina Hains

While originally utilized within the natural and agricultural sciences, the diffusion of innovation theory has been applied across numerous contexts. As we continue to apply this model within Extension education, international development, and other community education contexts around the world, it not only becomes pertinent to examine how it applies towards social innovations – innovations that improve the social good – but also to understand how communities react when adopting social innovations. Within this article, researchers propose an Emotional-Behavioral Influence Model to deepen the understanding as to how communities respond, emotionally and behaviorally, towards social innovations throughout the adoption process. They then overlay the model onto two examples, one urban and one rural, showcasing its application to communities worldwide. Finally, researchers discuss implications for extension professionals as they preflect on implementing social innovations in communities globally. Keywords: Diffusion of Innovation theory; flow; communities; downshifting; social innovation

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Vejlgaard

This study aims at finding out if households or organizations are faster in their acceptance of a technological innovation. The object of this study is digital terrestrial television (DTT), specifically the implementation of DTT in Denmark. The theoretical framework is diffusion of innovation theory. Three surveys were carried out for both households and organizations. Based on the surveys, the rate of adoption for households and for organizations could be established. It is clear that organizations accept new technology faster than households during the entire adoption process. An explanation may be that it is the employees in the organization who are the most open to technology innovations who set the agenda for the acceptance process. Danish culture can have had an influence on the findings. If that is the case the findings may be generalizable only to cultures that are similar to Danish culture.


Author(s):  
Alesha D. Baker

The purpose of this article is to examine whether the use of open educational resources (OER) in teacher preparation programs impacts the perception of the resource. P-12 schools are beginning to adopt OER; however, many teachers are unfamiliar with OER, which may slow diffusion throughout the institution. In this study, two groups of teacher candidates from two universities completed surveys evaluating their perceptions of OER. The first group used an open textbook in their course. The second group had no experience using OER. Results indicate that teacher candidates who used the open textbook perceived OER more positively and were more likely to want to use OER in their future classrooms. The results suggest that incorporating OER into courses during teacher preparation programs not only better prepares teacher candidates for using the resources after graduation, but also increases progression through the adoption process described in the diffusion of innovation theory.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 207-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Elison ◽  
Jonathan Ward ◽  
Glyn Davies ◽  
Mark Moody

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption and implementation of computer-assisted therapy (CAT) using Breaking Free Online (BFO) in a social care and health charity working with people affected by drugs and alcohol dependence, Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI). Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were conducted with service managers, practitioners, peer mentors and service users. Data were thematically analysed and themes conceptualised using Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory (Rogers, 1995, 2002, 2004). Findings – A number of perceived barriers to adoption of BFO throughout CRI were identified within the social system, including a lack of IT resources and skills. However, there were numerous perceived benefits of adoption of BFO throughout CRI, including broadening access to effective interventions to support recovery from substance dependence, and promoting digital inclusion. Along with the solutions that were found to the identified barriers to implementation, intentions around longer-term continuation of adoption of the programme were reported, with this process being supported through changes to both the social system and the individuals within it. Research limitations/implications – The introduction of innovations such as BFO within large organisations like CRI can be perceived as being disruptive, even when individuals within the organisation recognise its benefits. For successful adoption and implementation of such innovations, changes in the social system are required, at organisational and individual levels. Practical implications – The learning points from this study may be relevant to the substance misuse sector, and more widely to criminal justice, health and social care organisations. Originality/value – This study is the first of its kind to use a qualitative approach to examine processes of implementation of CAT for substance misuse within a large treatment and recovery organisation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 87-95
Author(s):  
Liang Zhang ◽  
◽  
Xuesheng Qian ◽  
Ping Lv ◽  
Xue Zhou ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
J. McAvoy ◽  
E. Van Sickle ◽  
B. Cameron

In industry, up to 40% of an IS budget can be spent on Storage technology, making it the fastest growing segment of IT/IS. While industry has recognised the need to diffuse this technology, academia has been slow to respond to this diffusion need. Universities are not teaching courses in this area and a variety of reasons are presented ranging from lack of skills, to bureaucratic delays, to cost (the cost of installing a Storage system for use by students is a massive expenditure well beyond the budgets of most IS academic departments).This chapter concentrates on the lack of skills (knowledge barriers in the parlance of diffusion of innovation theory) and examines ways to overcome this. The knowledge skills are present in industry, so collaboration between industry and academia is a suggested solution. Collaboration between industry and academia, though, is fraught with problems. The aim of this research therefore is to examine how this collaboration can be effective. Interestingly, the result of this research suggests true collaboration is not the solution, but a win-win situation is still possible for all stakeholders.


Author(s):  
Luke Houghton ◽  
Don Kerr

This chapter argues that diffusion theory models like the technology acceptance model (TAM) need to be rethought of in light of contextual factors that are becoming increasingly important in modern inter-organisational settings. This is due to the growing complexity of organizations with respect to different organisational types, contexts, and political structures that have been shown in research literature to hinder information systems acceptance. The chapter looks at possible contextual factors that are ignored by TAM by critiquing its parent diffusion theory (diffusion of innovations). This approach was considered best as there are many variations of TAM, but the diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory underlies all these variations. The chapter also recommends a way forward for research into inter-organisational information systems by examining an example situation of Feral Information Systems (FIS) to illustrate the problem. The chapter concludes with a discussion about future research directions.


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