4. Research streams
1. anthropology
2. early sociology
3. rural sociology
4. education
5. public health and medical sociology
6. communication
7. marketing
8. geography
9. general sociology
5. Adopter categories
1. innovators
2. early adopters
3. early majority
4. late majority
5. laggards
(shorthand)
11. Praise
• useful conceptualization (e.g.
innovator types, rate of adoption,
diffusion)
• repetition
• easy to read
12. Critique
1. definition of innovation?
2. adopter classification is arbitrary
(story of organic farmer)
3. empirical focus on closed social
systems (e.g. villages)
4. pro-innovation bias (financial
”innovations”, drugs)
5. what about innovations that
achieve incomplete diffusion? (s-
curve)