Innovation Diffusion and Implementation

Economic progress continues to be greatly influenced by the development and adoption of innovations. Maintaining momentum necessitates understanding factors that influence the choices made by organisations. Diffusion and implementation research have each sought to understand necessary conditions and motivations and to identify obstacles. Whether these two areas of research have the same determinants, overlap, or are separate is controversially affecting the interpretation of current research. This issue is the subject of this paper. The empirical investigation compares variables of the diffusion chronology with the choice decision in implementation. This macro-level analysis reveals that the two areas are connected but there are also substantial differences. The results of this study reconfirm the emerging evidence in the literature that the innovation adoption decision should not be treated as a dichotomous organisational choice. Furthermore, the evidence strongly points to the need to develop integrative theories that include the chronological aspects of the innovation adoption process.