Diffusion of Innovations

A theoretical framework describing how new ideas, practices, or technologies are communicated and adopted across members of a social system over time, emphasising features of the innovation, characteristics of adopters and opinion leaders, communication channels, and the social structure that shapes the rate and pattern of adoption.

A descriptive model of how new ideas, practices or technologies spread through a social system over time via communication channels and interpersonal networks; adoption is heterogeneous across actors and shaped by innovation attributes, social influence and network structure rather than being instantaneous or uniform.

A theory describing how new ideas, products, or practices spread through a social system over time via adopter categories, communication channels, social networks, and attributes of the innovation (e.g., relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability).