Attributes of Innovations as Factors in Diffusion

Differences among innovations are important variables in explaining the diffusion process. Data on rate of adoption of thirty-three modern farm practices and farmers' perceptions of fifteen attributes of those practices are subjected to partial correlation analysis. For this sample of relatively prosperous farmers, innovations perceived as most rewarding and least risky are accepted most rapidly, as expected; high costs do not serve as a brake on adoption; direct contribution of the innovation to a major occupational interest enhances adoption, while complexity and the pervasiveness of consequences following from acceptance have no effect. Further studies with different types of respondents and different innovations should yield a scheme for classifying the item which is bein adopted and thus permit better prediction of the diffusion process.