Stages of Adopters
Diffusion of an innovation occurs through a fiveāstep process. This process is a type of decision-making. It occurs through a series of communication channels over a period of time among the members of a similar social system. Everett Rogers categorizes the five stages (steps) of adopters as:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Evaluation
- Trial
- Adoption
An individual might reject an innovation at any time during or after the adoption process. In later editions of The Diffusion of Innovations, Rogers changes the terminology of the five stages to: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. However the descriptions of the categories have remained similar throughout the editions. The five stages of the adoption process are:
- Knowledge: In this stage the individual is first exposed to an innovation but lacks information about that innovation. During this stage of the process the individual has not been inspired to find more information about the new idea.
- Persuasion: In this stage, the individual is interested in the innovation and actively seeks information and details about it.
- Decision: In this stage, the individual takes the concepts of change (switching cost), weighs the advantages and disadvantages of using the innovation, and decides whether to adopt or reject the innovation. Due to the individualistic nature of this stage, Rogers notes that it is the most difficult stage to acquire empirical evidence.
- Implementation: In this stage, the individual employs the innovation to a varying degree depending on the situation. During this stage the individual determines the usefulness of the innovation and may search for further information about it.
- Confirmation: Although the name of this stage may be misleading, in this stage, the individual finalizes his or her decision to continue using the innovation and may end up using it to its fullest potential.
Stages of Diffusion
This chart depicts the five stages of the diffusion of innovation.