Unit 8 Behavior: Diffusion of Innovation
Diffusion of Innovation has four main constructs: The innovation, the channels or means in which it is communicated, time, and the social system. Within these constructs, there are differing characteristics.
For this week’s Discussion, you can either (1) create your own health care innovation or (2) research what innovations are already in circulation. Upon your choice of either option 1 or 2, you will then examine the characteristics of the innovations. These characteristics include relative advantage, trialability, complexity, compatibility, and observability. Please define these characteristics and then analyze your innovation with these characteristics.
Sample Answer
Unit 8 Behavior: Diffusion of Innovation
Diffusion of Innovations is a research model that describes how a new concept, product, or positive health behavior spreads through a social structure or community (Rogers & Rahim 2021). Diffusion of innovation relies on innovation characteristics, communication channels, time, and social system.
In the week’s discussion, I choose option (2): to research innovations already in circulation. Generally, there has been an extensive range of innovations in healthcare, although individual masses haven’t entirely accepted all these innovations worldwide. I prefer to quote and explain an example of “Organ donation” as an innovation on circulation, although it has not yet been fully diffused. Characteristics of innovations, including relative advantage, trialability, complexity, compatibility, and observability, can be understood in organ donation.
Relative advantage is the degree at which an idea or product is perceived as better than existing standard. In most underdeveloped and developing countries, organ donation is still supposed to be an irrelevant thing, so individuals don’t indulge in it. The trialability characteristic defines how simply potential adopters may explore the innovation. It’s critical facilitating the implementation of innovation (Jiang, Wang & Yuen 2021). Organ donation is perceived with negative shade as there still exists the fear of trying it even after the death of an individual. Complexity characteristic refers to how hard it is for the adopters to learn using an innovation. Complexity slows down gears of improvement. The more severe innovation is, the harder it will be for possible adopters to include it in their lives. Individual patients and family members see organ donation as a highly complex issue and thus tend to get away from it. Compatibility characteristic refers to the compatibility level that innovation has with the individuals as they integrate it into their lives. Potential adopters require knowing that their innovation will be compatible with their lifestyle and life. In relation to this characteristic, Organ donation didn’t match most nations’ traditions, customs, cultures, and lifestyles. Individuals who died were either burned or buried as per rituals of nearly all cultures. Therefore, organ donation tended to be unsuited. Besides, observability characteristic is the extent to which results or benefits of using an innovation are visible to the potential adopters. It took quite some time to comprehend the true impact of organ donation on the individual masses (Deininger et al.,2020). Additionally, organ trafficking and corruption made this issue serious as individuals lose faith in health care mechanisms in the underdeveloped parts of the globe.
References
- Deininger, K. M., Tsunoda, S. M., Hirsch, J. D., Anderson, H., Lee, Y. M., McIlvennan, C. K., … & Aquilante, C. L. (2020). A national survey of physicians’ perspectives on pharmacogenetic testing in solid organ transplantation. Clinical transplantation, 34(10), e14037. https://doi.org/10.1111/ctr.14037
- Jiang, Y., Wang, X., & Yuen, K. F. (2021). Augmented reality shopping application usage: The influence of attitude, value, and innovation characteristics. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 63, 102720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102720
- Rogers, E. M., & Rahim, S. A. (2021). 11. Where Are We in Understanding the Diffusion of Innovations? In Communication and change (pp. 204-225). University of Hawaii Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824887100-012
