In the almost-600-page Diffusion of Innovations book, Rogers present several concepts. Among them, I was fascinated by the decision innovation process. Using it, Rogers modeled the process where a decision unit (generally an individual but a small team could also fit) resolve if it will adopt an innovation or not.

This model is composed of five steps:

  1. Knowledge

    In this step, the decision unit is exposed to the innovation. In other words, it gets to know about the existence of this new thing.

  2. Persuasion

    The decision unit obtains more information about the innovation and starts developing an opinion about it.

  3. Decision

    Then, the decision unit weighs the pros and cons, also against their beliefs, and decide wheter to adopt the innovation or not.

  4. Implementation

    Finally, the decision unit adopts the innovation in a varying degree. It could also modify the innovation adapting it to the context. In this process, the decision unit continues developing an opinion about the innovation.

  5. Confirmation

    In this stage, the decision unit re-evaluates its adoption decision based on the results obtained and confirm the adoption or abandon the innovation.

At first sight, this theory seemed to me perfect to explain the (lack of) adoption of Lean Startup among startups. And that was my first idea to take my PhD forward. In the next post, I’ll tell what I learned from the feedback I received.