Diffusion of Innovations
and Related Theories
Gallivan's Perspective
Gallivan (2001), in a non-empirical paper, encapsulated the entire concept of perceptions and decisions in a framework based on organizational politics. He described adoption as being two (or more) phases. The first phase involves the search for and selection of a technology to meet a business problem. The second phase involves the subsequent implementation and use. He made the point that for each level at which a decision is made, the phases of adoption and implementation apply. At high levels, implementation consists of passing the innovation to the next lower level. At lower levels, adoption means acceptance of what is passed down from above. At the final level where it is brought to bear on the organization's needs, implementation means making it actually work.
Gallivan (2001) suggests that authoritarian structures influence early stages in the process, but not necessarily latter stages. By extension, one might posit that an adoption decision has a limited ability to penetrate down the organization chart - suggesting a reason why large organizations may appear unwieldy.
Rawstorne, Jayasuriya, and Caputi (1998) note a different between what they term "symbolic adoption" and "actual adoption" which map to the primary and secondary adoption phases of Gallivan (2001).
Interestingly, Gallivan (2001) did not in his politically-schemed framework consider the possibility that an innovation might come to an implementer from a source other than above:
- Freely downloadable from the Internet
- Self-purchase by individuals from an outside source
- Illegal copying from an outside source
- Open-source
- Creation within the organization
An alternative view was suggested by Surry and Ensminger (2003), who validated Ely's (1990) model in the Education domain using eight conditions: Dissatisfaction, Skills, Resources, Time, Rewards, Participation, Commitment, and Leadership; in lieu of Rogers' (2003) PCIs.