Customer Reviews:
 The definitive text on the subject January 3, 2001
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This updated edition of the best work on the diffusion of ideas and innovations is essential reading for a range of disciplines from sociology through technology transfer to MBA students. It is lucid, uses examples well and has as little jargon as is consistent with the complexity of the ideas being expressed. Five stars.
Packed With Knowledge! May 6, 2004
Rolf Dobelli (Luzern Switzerland)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Why would a villager draw polluted drinking water from a canal where a dead donkey floats instead of using a nearby tap to get clean drinking water? Why did it take hundreds of years for the British Navy to give sailors oranges and lemons when tests had proven that citrus fruit cured the scurvy that killed sailors and left vessels under-manned? Why do eminently sensible things not happen? If you’ve ever wondered, this book will give you the answers. It’s a thick, heavy, academic tome, but spiced with abundant anecdotes and observations that make it an easy, enjoyable read. This is the rare book that combines solid intellectual content with thought-provoking entertainment. We highly recommend this classic from 1962 to all audiences, but especially those whose business it is to understand and use the social mechanisms through which innovations must diffuse.
Very comprehensive , must for marketeers February 17, 1999
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book is a comprehensive cover of the word of mouth communications medium. Well worth reading.
 Latest and updated January 10, 2004
update@innovaro.com (London)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
First published way back in 1962, this fifth edition of the classic study of the social, technological and political influences on the mechanisms by which innovation are shared and penetrate markets includes a wealth of new insights. Alongside many of the original studies of the diffusion of such developments as pesticide use in Iowa, treatments for scurvy in the British Navy, the hypodermic needle, the concept of the kindergarten and the use of snowmobiles is a host of revealing cases based on more recent developments: From mobile phone adoption in Finland, global internet usage and electric cars through to the oral re-hydration therapy campaign in Egypt, the publishing success of ‘Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood’, and the adoption of Hate Crime laws in the US, multiple new examples are used to reflect on and reinforce many of the original concepts: The role of change agents and opinion leaders, adoption theory, virtual networks, critical mass and the transfer of knowledge are all reappraised to give a new lease of life to this authoritative text.
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