Showing papers on "Diffusion of innovations published in 1970"

Factors affecting diffusion of innovations among health professionals.

Abstract: YOUNG has stated that "the ultimate objective of most health education activities is to change individual, group, community, or societal behavior."' While the health educator has traditionally emphasized the health beliefs and practices of the lay public, both the changing nature of health needs and the continuing appearance of research findings relevant to developing practices and procedures to meet these needs argue for an increased concern with attempts to influence the attitudes and behaviors of health professionals. Public health has long been interested in insuring the speedy application of medical and scientific knowledge. The imposing time lag between disclosure of new public health knowledge and its utilization by health professionals deprives many citizens of the benefits of medical research.2 Health educators assist in narrowing the gap when they engage in activities directed at professionals: continuing education programs for medical and allied health personnel; training programs for health workers (from screening technicians to nursing home employees) ; technical assistance and consultation services in agencies such as schools and health departments; and even dissemination among themselves of new knowledge and techniques from health education theory and research.3 The success of these influence attempts depends on something more than the transmission of technical facts; availability of information concerning the existence, efficacy, and acquisition of new programs or procedures is clearly not in itself a sufficient condition for acceptance by the health professional. In the field of public health, one key element in the application of scientific advances to the community is the role and behavior of the official health agency. Health agencies can speed up or delay the bringing of new procedures and programs to their clients. This paper summarizes some major results of an extensive research project that traced the patterns by which public health programs diffused (spread) among health departments within each of three states. A major study objective was identification of factors facilitating or inhibiting adoption of new programs by an important group of health professionalsadministrators of local health depart-

The search for the consumer innovator

Abstract: The acceptance of newness by the members of a particular society or culture is a subject of major interest to anthropologists, sociologists, and businessmen. How are new ideas, practices, and products diffused from one individual or group to another? Are there some groups or individuals who are more receptive to newness than others? Successful innovation is the key to business success. Yet new-product failure rates are estimated as high as 95 percent.1 New-product introductions appear to be not only the most important undertaking in marketing but also the most difficult. Within the past ten years businessmen have discovered that for a number of years the related disciplines of anthropology and sociology have been conducting significant research relating to the diffusion of innovations. Their findings appear to be applicable to the marketing problems involved in introducing new products.