Diffusion of innovations

About: Diffusion of innovations is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2139 publications have been published within this topic receiving 191397 citations. The topic is also known as: diffusion of innovation & diffusion of innovations theory.

Promoting sustainable travel behaviour through the use of smartphone applications: A review and development of a conceptual model

Abstract: The negative effects of transport in terms of pollution, congestion and climate change has urged the need for higher shares of cleaner and more efficient modes of transport, especially in urban settings. While new technology can solve some of these issues, behaviour changes has also been identified as an important factor to achieve a modal shift from cars to walking, cycling or public transport. This study investigates how ICT has been used to influence behaviour change and synthesizes key aspects into a conceptual model for creating a behaviour change support system (BCSS) for smartphone applications. A literature review concerning behaviour change and ICT in the fields of transport, health, energy and climate was conducted to gather empirical evidence which forms the foundation of the conceptual model. The empirical findings were tested and verified against a theoretical framework consisted of The Transtheoretical Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Diffusion of Innovations and the concept of Gamification. The results suggest that customization to the user, relevant and contextualised information and feedback, commitment, and appealing design are important aspects when influencing users to behaviour change through smartphone applications. The conceptual model provides further knowledge of key aspects to consider when developing persuasive tools that aims to encourage more sustainable modes of transport.

Translating Research into Practice in Nursing Homes: Can We Close the Gap?

Abstract: This paper addresses a question that continues to challenge researchers, practitioners, and regulators: How do we translate what has been learned from research into daily practice in nursing homes (NHs)? Numerous studies and reports have documented this translation gap in a wide range of NH care areas (Chu, Schnelle, Cadogan, & Simmons, 2004; Schnelle et al., 2003; Simmons et al., 2003; Thakur & Blazer, 2008). The literature also identifies numerous reasons for this gap. Lack of staff knowledge, high turnover rates, understaffing, inconsistent regulatory practices, poor or no financial incentives to improve care, and weak management caused in part by inaccurate information systems—all have been cited and examined in the literature as barriers to evidence-based practice in NHs (Donoghue, 2010; Harrington et al., 2000; Jones et al., 2004; Wiener, 2003). Another reason for the gap is that we have only limited evidence about the best ways to translate NH research in to day-to-day practice. As we discuss in this review article, a number of researchers, funders, and improvement advocates currently are engaged in translating research into practice in NHs, in the United States as well as other countries, including Europe (Meesterberends, Halfens, Lohrmann, & de Wit, 2010), Canada (Estabrooks et al., 2009), and Australia (Bartlett & Boldy, 2001). Although a few case studies have profiled facets of their work (Yuan et al., 2010) and other studies have called for improved dissemination of best practices (Ouslander, 2007), none has critically analyzed the translation process, that is, the steps or approaches these change agents take to disseminate evidence-based practices by NH providers. This represents a missed opportunity: A thoughtful evidence-based approach to translation could mitigate the hampering effects of NHs’ organizational barriers to change, making large-scale improvements more likely. Such an approach is also fiscally prudent at a time when funders are looking for results from their substantial development investments in new care interventions. This review aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining NH translation efforts through Rogers’ conceptual model for disseminating new interventions (Rogers, 2003; see also Gladwell, 2002; Green & Kreuter, 1999; Rowe, de Savigny, Lanata, & Victora, 2005; Titler, 2008). In his text, The Diffusion of Innovations (Fifth Edition), Rogers (2003, p. 6) describes innovation dissemination as a process that leads to “social change.” For the purposes of this paper, effective translation strategies are those strategies, actions, and programs that lead to the adoption of evidence-based or recommended practices that in turn are associated with change, as measured by improvements in NH processes or outcomes. Rogers further describes innovation dissemination as a process involving four elements: (a) an innovation (e.g., a new or previously untried idea or practice) disseminated to (b) members of a social system via (c) a communications channel (d) over time. Research across multiple disciplines has led to a body of general evidence-based principles about how innovations spread through this process. The findings also show that each dissemination area influences the other elements of the process. Thus, for example, an innovation’s attributes can influence how quickly it is adopted; similarly, characteristics of a target group can affect its intervention adoption rate (Rogers, 2003). Because the four elements are interrelated, how the dissemination process works in practice depends on the specific context (Rowe et al., 2005; Titler, 2008); an innovation that works in one environment may perform differently in another. With this in mind, this review’s first section discusses the four-part dissemination process as it applies to known characteristics of the NH system in the United States. This allows us to make some initial assumptions about the ability of NHs to adopt new interventions and to gain insight into how external change agents—those NH researchers, advocates, funders, and policy makers working to bridge the gap between research and practice—should structure their work for best results. We then assess the extent to which this group’s present efforts align with key principles of innovation dissemination. In part two, we discuss strategies for strengthening the work of change agents.

The Role of Policy Attributes in the Diffusion of Innovations

Abstract: Studies of policy diffusion have given insufficient attention to the role that characteristics of the policies themselves play in determining the speed of policy diffusion and the mechanisms through which diffusion occurs. We adopt Everett Rogers’ (1983, 2004) attribute typology from the diffusion of innovations literature and apply it to a sample of 27 policy innovations from the sphere of criminal justice policy in the U.S. states between 1973 and 2002. We find that policy attributes, ranging from the relative advantage of the policy over its predecessors to its complexity to its compatibility with past practices, affect the likelihood of adoption. Furthermore, policy attributes shape the extent to which spatial adoption patterns and learning mechanisms are relevant to the policy’s diffusion.