ADOPTER CATEGORIES AND FACTORS

INFLUENCING ADOPTION
AEX 321 Extension Methods and Transfer of Technology (1+1)

PRESENTED BY

MANIKANDAN.V BTE-08-027

ADOPTION
Adoption is a decision to make full use of a new idea as the
best course of action available.

Adoption takes place within the mind of an individual. Adoption is the end point indicator for a change. Adoption is carried out only by the members of pre-social
system.

Awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption are the

elements in adoption process.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

ADOPTER CATEGORIES
o o o
Individual in a social system do not adopt an innovation at the same time. On the basis of when they first begin using a new idea. Bell shaped curve

Five adopter categories

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Innovators : Venturesome, Educated, Multiple Info Sources Early Adopter: Respectable ,social leaders, popular, educated Early majority: Deliberate ( local Adoption leaders) Late Majority : Skeptical, Traditional, Lower Socio-economic Status Laggards : Traditional , neighbors and friends are main info
sources, fear of debt
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Innovators
o
Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation.

Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have the

highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators.

o o

Risk tolerance has them adopting technologies which may ultimately fail. Financial resources help absorb these failures.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

This is the second fastest category of individuals who adopt an

innovation.
These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories.

Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social

status, have more financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters.

More discrete in adoption choices than innovators. Realize judicious choice of adoption will help them maintain central communication position.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

Early Majority
Individuals This
in this category adopt an innovation after a varying

degree of time.
time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators Majority tend to be slower in the adoption process, have and early adopters.

Early

above average social status, contact with early adopters, and seldom hold positions of opinion leadership in a system.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

LATE MAJORITY
Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average

member of the society.

These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of

skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation.
Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below

average social status, very little financial lucidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority, very little opinion

leadership.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

LAGGARDS

Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike

some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show

little to no opinion leadership.

These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on traditions, likely to have lowest social status, lowest financial fluidity, be oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to

no opinion leadership.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

 There are both positive and negative outcomes when an individual or organization chooses to adopt a particular innovation. Rogers states that this is an area that needs further research because of the biased positive attitude that is associated with the adoption of a new innovation .

In the Diffusion of Innovation, Rogers lists three categories for

consequences:
1. desirable vs. undesirable, 2. direct vs. indirect, and 3. anticipated vs. unanticipated.

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Adopter categories and factors influencing adoption

FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION

SOCIAL FACTORS:
Community standards and social relationships provide the general framework where in the process of change occurs, and they account for the difference between one community (or group) and another.

PERSONAL FACTORS:
Why some people adopt new ideas and practices more quickly than others relates in part to the individual himself.

SITUATIONAL FACTORS:
Reasons why farm prairies more quickly at one time than another relate to the situation in which they find themselves when alternative courses of action become known.
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I.

Social factors:
1. 2. 3. Social values Local Leadership Social contacts Age: Education: Psychological characteristics Values and attitudes (cultural characteristics)

II.

Personal factors:

III. Situational factors:

1. Complexity 2. Cost 3. Net Returns 4. Compatibility 5. Divisibility: (Trial ability) 6. Communicability (Observability) Adopter categories and factors influencing
adoption

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I. SOCIAL FACTORS
Social values:
In some groups and communities people place a higher value upon material gains and money than they do in others. In the adoption of new practices goes country to the establishes customs and traditions of the people, the innovator may be ridiculed or lose prestige.

Local Leadership:
The acceptance of change is also influenced by the nature of the leadership and control in the group or community. In some communities, none would accept a new idea, unless and until one man (the leader) in the community is sold on the idea.

Social contacts:
The nature and extents of social contact within and outside the community is important in the diffusion of new ideas and techniques, Nature of social contact Extent of social contact Social distance
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II. PERSONAL FACTORS

Age:
Elderly farmers seem to be somewhat less inclined to adopt new practices than younger ones.

Education:
More than eight years schooling is almost always associated with higher adoption rates than lesser amounts.

Psychological characteristics :
Exposure to reliable sources of farm information may create a state of rationality, which in turn predisposes an individual to the adoption of new practices. A mentally flexible person has higher adoption rates than one with mental rigidity. Some people are found to be more prone to change than others.
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III. Situational factors:

Complexity: Generally speaking, the more complex a practice and the more change it requires in the existing operations, the more slowly it will be adopted. A simple change: A change in materials and equipment only without a change in techniques or operations (e.g., new variety of seed) Improved practice: Change in existing operation with or with out a change in materials or equipment (e.g., change in rotation of crops).

Innovation: Change involving new techniques or operations (e.g.,

contour cropping) Change in total enterprise: e.g., from crop to livestock farming.
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CONT..
Cost: Those practices which cost little seem to be adopted more rapidly than those which are more expensive. Net Returns: Those practices which yield, the greatest marginal returns per rupee invested, and in the shortest time seem to be adopted most

readily.
Compatibility:
Is the degree to which an innovation is consistent with existing values and past experiences of the adopters. An idea that is not compatible with the cultural norms of a social system will not be adopted so rapidly as an idea that is compatible
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e.g., the lack of compatibility and factors influencing of the beef. Adopter categories
adoption

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CONT
Divisibility: (Trialability) : Is the degree to which the results of an innovation may be tried on a limited basis. Communicability (Observability): Is the degree to which the results of an innovation may be to others. The results of some practices are easily observed Size of farm: Tenure status: Sources of farm information used: Level of living:

Since successful farm practice adoption is instrumental in

providing the means for supporting a higher level of living, a positive correlation between the two would be expected and is generally found.
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