Topic 3. Sociology of Fashion and Diffusion of Innovations
Key Terms and Concepts
- Compatibility: The degree to which an innovation fits with consumers’ personal needs, values, lifestyles, and past experiences.
- Complexity: The levels of difficulty in understanding and using the innovation.
- Continuous innovation: Innovations that have the least disruption to consumers’ established lifestyles.
- Diffusion of Innovation: A theory that describes consumers’ acceptance of new ideas and trends in a bell-shaped curve.
- Discontinuous innovation: Innovations that drastically change consumers’ lifestyles.
- Dynamically continuous innovation: Innovations that disrupt consumers’ usual use of a certain product but do not radically alter it.
- Early adopters: According to the Diffusion of Innovation, early adopters are consumers who are willing to take some risks and typically assume some opinion leadership roles.
- Early majority: According to the Diffusion of Innovation, early majority are consumers who need to be more informed before deciding to adopt an innovation.
- Innovators: According to the Diffusion of Innovation, innovators are consumers who are willing to take risks of trying new things.
- Late Majority: According to the Diffusion of Innovation, the late majority are consumers who require more evidence to establish expectations of the innovations and often accept them due to peer pressure.
- Laggards: According to the Diffusion of Innovation, the laggards are consumers who prefer no change and may not adopt an idea until a style is an “old fashion.
- Relative advantage: The extent to which this innovation is superior in some important way to existing products.
- Trialability: The degree to which consumers perceive an innovation may be tried out.
