Page 109 - Culture Technology Communication

94 Carleen F. Maitland and Johannes M. Bauer

That national level characteristics and national level adoption
can be associated is the easier part of applying the individual level
diffusion theory to a global analysis. The more challenging part of
applying an individual level theory to a global level analysis comes
8
from the more explanatory elements of diffusion theory. These ele-
ments highlight the process of diffusion more so than the precondi-
tions amenable to diffusion.
Above, the five categories of adoption variables were described
as (1) perceived attributes, (2) type of innovation decision, (3) com-
munication channels, (4) nature of the social system, and (5) extent
of change agents’ efforts. These categories of variables were derived
from theories of interpersonal communication, mass media, sociol-
ogy, etc., as well as evidence found in actual diffusion studies. The
first category “perceived attributes of the innovation” emphasizes
that the perceptions of individuals are what drive diffusion, as op-
posed to some externally defined objective characteristics. Perceived
attributes have been identified as being in one of five categories: rel-
ative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observ-
ability. Although the emphasis has been on individuals’ subjective
perceptions of these traits, the categories of the traits themselves,
such as trialability and observability, suggest there is some role for
objective traits in diffusion studies.
The role of these objective traits may be conceptualized as fol-
lows. Perhaps the attributes of an innovation related to its adop-
tion can be broken down into two components: objective attributes
and subjectively perceived attributes. The adoption of various in-
novations will rely on a mix of these two parts, and the weights as-
signed to each part will vary with the innovation. If one accepts
this objective/subjective innovation attribute argument, it is pos-
sible to move the theory from one constrained to the individual
(subjective) mode to one where higher level units of analysis can be
considered. If there are objective traits that make a technology
more advantageous in some environments than others then it is
possible to apply diffusion theory to the study of organizations,
groups, firms, and nations.
This role for objective innovation attributes is further supported
by the above discussion of the need to modify diffusion theory to take
into account the objective traits of interactive networks. For an in-
teractive network-based innovation, the objective characteristics
(the value of the innovation relying on the number of other adopters,
the need for large-scale investment for network technologies, etc.)