The diffusion of an innovation is the spread of a product, process, or idea perceived as new, through communication channels, among the members of a social system over time. Innovations can be a new product or output, a new process or way of doing something, or a new idea or concept. The "newness" of an innovation is subjective, determined by the potential adopter.

Diffusion Processes

Generally, the diffusion, or cumulative adoption, of an innovation over time follows an S-curve: that is, slowing growing initially, then accumulating quickly, then flattening out as the maximum level of adoption is reached. Portions of this diffusion curve (i.e., standard deviations of the normal curve) can be characterized as types of adopters. The first 2.5 percent of adopters within a social system are innovators, the next 13.5 percent are early adopters, the next 34 percent are early...