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Concept
Technology adoption life cycle
Summary
The technology adoption lifecycle is a sociological model that describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter groups. The process of adoption over time is typically illustrated as a classical normal distribution or "bell curve". The model indicates that the first group of people to use a new product is called "innovators", followed by "early adopters". Next come the early majority and late majority, and the last group to eventually adopt a product are called "Laggards" or "phobics." For example, a phobic may only use a cloud service when it is the only remaining method of performing a required task, but the phobic may not have an in-depth technical knowledge of how to use the service.
The demographic and psychological (or "psychographic") profiles of each adoption group were originally specified by agricultural researchers in 1956:
innovators – had larger farms, were more educated, more prosperous and more risk-oriented
early adopters – younger, more educated, tended to be community leaders, less prosperous
early majority – more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community and influence to neighbors
late majority – older, less educated, fairly conservative and less socially active
laggards – very conservative, had small farms and capital, oldest and least educated
The model has subsequently been adapted for many areas of technology adoption in the late 20th century, for example in the spread of policy innovations among U.S. states.
The model has spawned a range of adaptations that extend the concept or apply it to specific domains of interest.
In his book Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore proposes a variation of the original lifecycle. He suggests that for discontinuous innovations, which may result in a Foster disruption based on an s-curve, there is a gap or chasm between the first two adopter groups (innovators/early adopters), and the vertical markets.
Disruption as it is used today are of the Clayton M.
Official source
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Technology acceptance model
The technology acceptance model (TAM) is an information systems theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology. The actual system use is the end-point where people use the technology. Behavioral intention is a factor that leads people to use the technology. The behavioral intention (BI) is influenced by the attitude (A) which is the general impression of the technology.
Early adopter
An early adopter or lighthouse customer is an early customer of a given company, product, or technology. The term originates from Everett M. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations (1962). Typically, early adopters are customers who, in addition to using the vendor's product or technology, also provide considerable and candid feedback to help the vendor refine its future product releases, as well as the associated means of distribution, service, and support. Early adoption could also be referred to as a form of testing in the early stages of a project.
Diffusion of innovations
Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. The theory was popularized by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations, first published in 1962. Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines.