A polymorphic framework for understanding the diffusion of innovations

This research focuses upon explaining the diffusion of innovations within a UK construction industry in order to provide improved understanding. Innovation diffusion has been studied at great depth in the field’s anthropology and sociology, however, the UK construction industry has not yet embraced this body of knowledge fully. Much of the sociological research into the subject adopts a positivist paradigm and exploits quantitative relational data. It is argued that such an approach does not provide a full understanding of innovation diffusion as many of the idiosyncratic elements of actors, innovations and context are oversimplified. Here a social realist epistemological position is adopted, drawing upon multiple methods. First, quantitative data is gathered in order to understand how innovation diffusion occurs within the UK construction industry in relation to the leading sociological concepts of cohesion, structural equivalence and thresholds. From this initial understanding more specific qualitative data is gathered from informal semi-structured interviews. This data is analysed using content analysis to understand why respondents believe innovation diffusion can be explained in a particular manner. Analysis of the data allows an understanding of how the relative importance of these concepts actually varies within each of Rogers’ stages of the innovation diffusion process. It is argued there is an iterative interplay between actors and the social system they occupy which directly influences the innovation diffusion process, which cannot be separated. Discussion of the data analysed results in an explanatory framework being proposed. The framework introduces a personal awareness threshold concept; whilst arguing the dominant role of cohesion through the main stages of diffusion, together with the low level of structural equivalence and the importance of adoption threshold levels. The framework demonstrates how the level of relevance for each diffusion concept fluctuates in relation to the stages of the diffusion process which offers a new development in the field.