11.5. CHARACTERISTICS OF INNOVATION AND ITS DIFFUSION

Rogers (1983, 1995) describes five different characteristics of innovation, as perceived by the potential adopter, that affect its rate of adoption:

Relative Advantage. The degree to which the innovation is superior to ideas it supersedes

Compatibility. The degree to which the innovation is consistent with existing values, past experiences, and needs of the user

Complexity. The degree to which the innovation is relatively difficult to understand and use

Trialability. The degree to which an innovation may be tried on a limited basis (in other words, without committing to full-scale, total operational change)

Observability. The degree to which the results from the use of an innovation are visible and easily communicated to users and other decision-makers

Clearly, characteristics of an innovation play an important role in technology transfer. For example, before the user adopts new technology, the user has to weigh the extra effort and investment in adopting new technology against the relative advantages presented by the new technology. Since existing technologies can be modified and can "stretch" to be more efficient, the new technology has to represent considerable advantages over existing ones before the extra effort involved in adopting this new technology would be considered a worthwhile undertaking.

Relative advantages relate to such items as reduced cost, increased profitability, increased convenience, reduced time, enhanced capability, and associated social status. While cost factors may stay the same or even increase, some innovations could provide relative advantage by reducing the time required to accomplish a mission or by markedly increasing product performance. For example, for military hardware such capabilities could provide a strategic or tactical advantage and thus facilitate adoption.

An innovation that is compatible with existing values and past experiences of the user is more likely to be adopted. For example, if the user has had a positive experience with innovations from a particular research laboratory, user adoption in the future will naturally be higher. The felt needs of the user can also play an important role. Sometimes external forces can create this need. For instance, regulatory requirements could create a strong need for adoption of advanced wastewater treatment technologies.

Some innovations are complex because their capabilities are difficult to understand and may require specialized training, equipment, and user capabilities. For such innovations, efforts need to be made to communicate capabilities simply and to provide the necessary training and equipment to increase the adoption rate.

Users are often willing to try new technology but are not willing to make full-scale and total operational changes, for obvious reasons. The risks outweigh the benefit to be derived. Therefore, when technology can be tried on a limited basis and if the changes can be made incrementally (trialability), the probability of its acceptance increases. Many innovations in office automation have followed this pattern.

If the benefits from the adoption of an innovation can be readily seen and easily communicated to potential users (observability), the rate of adoption is naturally greater. Hardware items fall in this category. Benefits from the adoption of software items (procedures, methodologies, and computer systems), however, are not as observable and not as easily communicated to potential users and thus have relatively slower rates of adoption.

Rogers's time-tested framework raises challenges to the market diffusion of technology-based products. Marketers should consider how these factors can be incorporated into the innovation process early on so that rapid and effective diffusion is built in as much as possible, and challenges to diffusion can surface early and be addressed. For example, as Weick, Wachli, and Eisenbarth (2005) have shown, had this set of factors been considered in the course of developing genetically engineered crops and foods, diffusion may have met with less resistance.