The Diffusion of Innovations

Arun Vishwanath is Associate Professor of Communication at the University at Buffalo. His research focuses on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral determinants of technology adoption. His research looks at how individuals conceptualize new innovations and the role of interpersonal and mass mediated messages in the adoption and utilization of innovations. George A. Barnett is Professor of Communication at the University of California, Davis. His research interests focus on social and cognitive system dynamics, and the examination of social and communication networks and how they change over time as a function of perturbations in the system in which they are embedded.

Contents: Arun Vishwanath/George A. Barnett: Introduction – Arun Vishwanath/Hao Chen: Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of the Innovation-Decision Process – Oscar Peters: Three Theoretical Perspectives on Communication Technology Adoption – Veronika Karnowski/Thilo von Pape/Werner Wirth: Overcoming the Binary Logic of Adoption – Lidwien van de Wijngaert/Harry Bouwman: Theoretical and Methodological Starting Points for a Situational Approach towards the Understanding of the Adoption and Use of New Technologies and Services – George A. Barnett: Mathematical Models of the Diffusion Process – James A. Danowski/Julia Gluesing/Ken Riopelle: The Revolution in Diffusion Theory Caused by New Media – Frank Tutzauer/Kyounghee Hazel Kwon/Benjamin Elbirt: Network Diffusion of Two Competing Ideas – Carolyn A. Lin: Media Substitution: Supplementation, Complementarity, or Displacement? – Arvind Singhal: Turning Diffusion of Innovations Paradigm on Its Head – James W. Dearing/Gary Meyer: The Active Adopter in the Diffusion of Innovations.