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G . Naveen Kumar 2013-11-193

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Rate of Adoption

• Rate of adoption is the relative speed with which an innovation is adopted by members of a social system.

• It is generally measured as the number of individuals who adopt a new idea in a specified period.

• So the rate of adoption is a numerical indicator of the steepness of the adoption curve for an innovation

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Variables Determining the Rate of Adoption

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Perceived attributes of Innovation

• Relative Advantage

Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being better than the idea it supersedes.

• The degree of relative advantage is often expressed as economic profitability, social prestige, or other benefits.

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Economic Factors and Rate of Adoption

• A new product may be based on a technological advance or advances that result in a reduced cost of production for the product, leading to a lower selling price to consumers.

Example : VCR and Pocket Calculator .

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Status Aspects of Innovations

• One motivation for many individuals to adopt an innovation is the desire to gain social status.

• Gabriel Tarde (1903) observed that status seeking was a main reason for imitating the innovation behavior of others.

• E.g. : clothing fashions and Harvestore in USA

• Status motivations for adoption seem to be more important for innovators, early adopters, and early majority, and less important for the late majority and laggards. 7

Effects of Incentives

• Many change agencies award incentives or subsidies to clients to speed up the rate of adoption of innovations.

• Incentives are direct or indirect payments of either cash or in kind.

• Incentives have been paid to speed up the diffusion of innovations in a variety of fields

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l. Adopter versus diffuser incentives :

• Incentives may be paid either directly to an adopter, or to another individual to persuade an adopter.

• A diffuser incentive mainly increases the observability of an innovation, rather than its relative advantage.

• E.g. : An illustration of a diffuser incentive is that paid to vasectomy canvassers in India

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2. Individual versus system incentives

• Payments may be made to individual adopters or to change agents, or to social systems to which they belong.

• For example, the government family planning agency in Indonesia paid a community incentive to villages that achieved a high rate of adoption of contraceptives

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3. Positive versus negative incentives

• Most incentives are positive in that they reward a desired behavior change (like adoption of a new idea).

• It is also possible to penalize an individual by imposing an unwanted penalty or by withdrawing some desiderata for not adopting an innovation.

• Example : The Govt. of Singapore has announced that if any family had third child in their family they will not provide any benefits to that family

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4. Monetary versus nonmonetary incentives

• While incentives are often financial payments, they may also take the form of some commodity or object that is desired by the recipient.

• Example :• For instance, in one state in India a sari with red

triangles (the symbol for family planning in India) was awarded to each woman who was sterilized

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5. Immediate versus delayed incentives

• Most incentives are paid at the time of adoption, but others can only be awarded at a later time.

• For example, some Third World nations provide a cost-free education to children of a couple who have a small family.

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:Incentives increase the rate of adoption of an

innovation

• Adopter incentives increase relative advantage, and diffuser incentives increase the observability with which an innovation is perceived.

• Adopter incentives lead to adoption of an innovation by individuals different from those who would otherwise adopt.

• Although incentives increase the quantity of adopters of an innovation, the quality of such adoption decisions may be relatively low, limiting the intended consequences of adoption

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Compatibility

• Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.

• An innovation can be compatible or incompatible• (1) with sociocultural values and beliefs• (2) with previously introduced ideas• (3) with client needs for the innovation

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Compatibility with Values and Beliefs

• An innovation's incompatibility with cultural values can

block its adoption.

• Examples :• Eating food with left hand • Miracle varieties of rice that developed from IRRI in 1960

gave attention to yields only and less attention to taste.

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Compatibility with Previously Introduced Ideas

• Compatibility of an innovation with a preceding idea can

either speed up or retard its rate of adoption.

• Example :• Usage of tractors in Punjab in early 1960’s.

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Compatibility with Needs

• One dimension of the compatibility of an innovation is the degree to which it meets a felt need.

• Change agents seek to determine the needs of their clients, and then to recommend innovations that fulfill these needs.

• When felt needs are met a faster rate of adotion usually occurs.

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Complexity

• Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use.

• The complexity of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is negatively related to its rate of adoption.

Example:

Usage of home computers in USA in early advancement .

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Trialability

• Trialability is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis.

• New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan are generally adopted more rapidly than innovations that are not divisible.

• The trialability of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption.

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Observability

• Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others.

• The observability of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption.

• Example :• Hardware and Software of a computer in which hardware

is easily observable where as advancements in software are not observable hence it has slow rates of adoption.

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communication channels

• The communication channels used to diffuse an innovation also may influence the innovation's rate of adoption.

• The relationship between communication channels and the attributes of the innovation often interact to slow down or speed up the rate of adoption.

• If an inappropriate communication channel were used, such as mass media channels for complex new ideas, a slower rate of adoption resulted

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Nature of the social system

• Norms of the system and the degree to which the communication network structure is highly interconnected, also affects an innovation's rate of adoption.

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Extent of change agents' promotion efforts

• The relationship between rate of adoption and change agents' efforts, however, may not be direct and linear.

• The greatest response to change agent effort occurs when opinion leaders adopt, which usually occurs somewhere between 3 and 16 percent adoption in most systems.

• The innovation will then continue to spread with little promotion by change agents, after a critical mass of adopters is reached.

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Forget yesterday - it has already forgotten you. Don't sweat tomorrow - you haven't even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift - today.  Steve Maraboli