Attributes of an innovation and their influence in transfer of technology

• Meaning of attributes
• Relative advantage

Meaning:
Attributes are qualities, characteristics or traits possessed by an object. All innovations have some qualities or characteristics. The characteristics of an innovation, as perceived by its potential adopters, influence the rate of its diffusion in a social system. The attributes of an innovation which influence the rate of diffusion are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, predictability.

Relative Advantage optimum:
The degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it replaces i.e. superior to the existing idea. The relative advantage may have number of dimensions. For example, if a new technology or practice gives more yield or income or saves time, labour and cost: or has less risk than the existing one; it has more relative advantage. Multiple use of an innovation may be a form of relative advantage. For example, an equipment or material which may be used for a number of activities has more advantage than an equipment or material which can be used for a single purpose. The advantage of location for specific enterprises in specific areas for instance growing sugar cane near the sugar factories will save time and money in transport or vice-versa. The innovations which have more relative advantage are likely to be adopted quickly. The degree of relative advantage is often expressed as economic profitability, social prestige, or other benefits. The nature of the innovation determines what specific type of relative advantage (such as economic, social and the like) is important to adopters

Economic factors
A new product may be based on a technological advance or advances that result in a reduced cost of production for the product, leading to a lower selling price to consumers. When the price of new product decreases so dramatically during its diffusion process, a rapid rate of adoption is encouraged. Some examples are 

• Reduced prices for plasma and LCD TVs has encouraged people to by them.
• The reduced prices of fruits and vegetables may encourage the people to use them more frequently in their diets.
• Reduced prices for hybrid seeds/fertilizers/pesticides may make it more feasible for farmers.

 Social factors:
            If a farmer can increase his social status in the society by adopting a particular innovation he will easily adopt.
In the society people are always comparing themselves to others, persons belonging to lower classes will adopt a new idea i9f he/she feels that they will be accepted by those of the upper class.

Geographic factors:
The geographic area where an individual lives will also affect the adoption/ rejection of an innovation. For instance.

• Particular seeds and fertilizers may be advantageous in irrigated rather than dry conditions
• Water coolers and refrigerators have more advantages in hot areas
• Particular storage bins have advantages on the type of climatic conditions and type of crops crown

Relative advantage and Rate of adoption:
Diffusion scholars have found relative advantage to be one of the best predictor of an innovation’s rate of adoption. Relative advantage indicates the benefits and the costs resulting from adoption of an innovation. Relative advantage is judged based on  include the degree of economic profitability, low initial cost, a decrease in discomfort, social prestige, savings in time and effort, and the immediacy of the reward.
The relative advantage of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption. That means, the greater the relative advantage of an innovation, the more rapid its rate of adoption will be.

Degree of economic profitability: how much of profit will you get by adopting the new idea (seeds, fertilizers etc)
Low initial cost: only when the input/equipment is cheap and is affordable an individual will buy.
Decrease in discomfort: if the idea is comfortable to work with he/she will buy it.
Social prestige: by using the new idea the individual will be better accepted in the society.
Saves time and effort: The idea should be able to be adopted with less effort and should save time.
Immediacy of rewards: If the individual can be able to reap the benefits immediately, than they will adopt it more easily.

Attributes of an innovation

• Complexity
• Trialability
• Predictability
• Compatibility
• Observability

Complexity
Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use. Some innovations are clear in their meaning to potential adopters others are not. Diffusion of an innovation which is too complex to communicate and to apply is slow. However, complexity of an innovation may not deter its adoption, provided it has more relative advantage. Which means that if the advantages of an innovation are very high adoption will take place even if the innovation is very complex? At first the adoption of a harvester or any labour saving device may seem very difficult. But when one thinks about the amount of time and effort it will save the individual will readily adopt.
However when technologies are complex often require complementary adoption, like training and communication support for the clientele, for their adoption and continued use. That means higher the complexity of the technology; lower the rate of adoption.
The complexity of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is negatively related to its rate of adoption

Trialability
Trialability (divisibility) is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis before deciding to adopt. New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan will generally be adopted more rapidly than innovations that are not divisible.
Trialability of an innovation is important for its diffusion for several reasons. The feeling of insecurity associated with the adoption of something new and previously unknown is greatly minimized if it can be tried out on a small scale.
The result of the trial, if successful, not only minimizes the risk and insecurity, it also gives the farmer on opportunity to evaluate the innovation in terms of its feasibility and applicability to his own situation. Some examples here will make the concept clear

• If a farmer can try seeds/fertilizers/ pesticides on a small patch of land, he can decide whether it is worth adopting on the whole farm. This reduces the risk for the farmers because he loses money he will lose only on a small scale.
• Similarly for a housewife, if she has to adopt preparation of weaning food (food for babies) she can prepare only a little quantity and if the baby likes the food, she can prepare larger quantities and store.
• You can also take the example of soap powders. In the market small sachets of 10 and 20 gms are available. If the housewife finds it good she can purchase a 1/2 kg or 1 kg packet.

Thus trialability is an important    characteristic which an individual will look for as he or she can reduce the risk of large scale failure. Some innovations like large machines and house hold equipment take a longer time to adopt because they cannot be tried on a small scale.
The Trialability of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is positively related to its rate of adoption. Transfer of technology is faster with the technologies which can be demonstrable on small scale basis i.e. on trial basis.

Predictability
Predictability refers to the degree or certainty of receiving expected benefits from the adoption of an innovation. Farmers or farm women are often very when making adoption decisions, because crop failure or substantial reduction in the output due to failure of agricultural innovations to achieve expected production goals, can result in loss of small landholdings and starvation of the family. Under such conditions farmers are reluctant to adopt any technology or technique which introduces a higher level of uncertainty into the operation of the farm enterprise. If a small farmer has only 1-2 acres of land he will not take the risk of sowing new seeds unless he is very sure that he will get the expected yield. If there is a loss, he may have nothing to eat for the whole year. So he will make sure by asking and observing other rich farmers who have already grown it.
Take the case of farm women, many a times she is asked to adopt an innovative enterprise with the aim of selecting it and making a profit for instance mushroom cultivation. But, if she is not sure of the demand for mushroom and whether there are people to buy it she will not adopt the innovation

Compatibility
Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with the existing values, past experiences and needs of the receivers. An idea that is not compatible with the existing situations of a social system will not be adopted so rapidly as an idea that is compatible. Compatibility ensures greater security and less risk to the receiver and makes the new idea more meaningful to him. An innovation may be compatible

• With socio-cultural values and beliefs. Introduction of protein rich non-vegetarian foods are not accepted by vegetarian societies.
• With previously introduced ideas. For instance soy recepies can be popularized only soya is being grown in that area.
• With client needs for innovations- If farmers are growing soya and don’t know what to do with soya, they will easily accept the recepies.

Observability
Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible/observable, demonstrable (which can be used and shown) and communicable to farmers. The results of some ideas are easily observed and communicated to others, whereas some innovations are difficult to describe to others. The Observability of an innovation as perceived by members of a social system is positively related to its rate of adoption. The visible impact of an innovation facilitates its diffusion in the social system.
Innovations that prevent in diseases are generally less costly than those that cure innovations, but the results of preventive innovations are not so obvious, compared to those of the curative innovations. The problem of lack of observability may, however, be overcome by strengthening extension effort like training, communication etc. which can enlarge one’s vision and reasoning.
A preventive innovation is an idea that an individual adopts at one point in time in order to lower the probability that some future unwanted event will occur.
Example: preparing for natural disaster, stopping smoking, buying insurance etc. The benefits of preventive innovations are clearly visible after a lapse of time.
A preventive innovation has particularly slow rate of adoption because individuals have difficulties in perceiving its relative advantage.
In the case of agricultural practices like improved seeds, fertilizers or pesticides, the results can be observed after a season. But in case of Home Science innovations like food and nutrition and child development where the results like good health and proper development of the child cannot be easily seen within a short time. In such cases the innovations are not easily accepted.
It may be generalized that the attributes of relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, observability and predictability of an innovation, as perceived by the members of a social system are positively related to its rate of adoption. The complexity of an innovation as perceived by the members of a social system is negatively related to its rate of adoption.

Consequences of adoption

• Meaning
• Desirable/Undesirable
• Functional versus Dysfunctional
• Direct versus indirect
• Anticipated versus unanticipated
• Manifest versus Latent

After having studied adoption, factors influencing adoption and rate of adoption in this class we will try to understand the consequences of adoption. When a technology is diffused for adoption it is always thought that the technology will be useful and beneficial to the users. But this does not always happen. As a coin has two sides, a technology also has plus and minus points and so when it is adopted different consequences occur.
Consequences are the changes that occur to an individual or to a social system as a result of the adoption or rejection of an innovation. There are three such categories of consequences.

Desirable/Undesirable Consequences
Desirable consequences are those outcomes which are seen as functional to the social system and individual members of the group or society. On the other hand, undesirable consequences are those which are seen as having dysfunctional impacts on individuals or society.
The consequences of an innovation are rarely completely desirable or undesirable, so many times we must weigh and assess the functional contribution of some innovation against the dysfunctional effects. Because most new innovations have a tendency to displace the older, more established methods or technologies, we can find the weighing of desirable versus undesirable consequences difficult — new innovations benefit some and hurt others.
For example, in the 1960’s, the widespread adoption of cable television was strongly opposed by local television broadcasters. This innovation was seen as very undesirable by this group because it would very likely shrink the audience for their programs. While the economic impact on local broadcasters was dysfunctional because they would now loose their customers to cable operators, the broader availability of program options were seen as a functional outcome which would benefit a larger portion of the public. An important issue surrounding the evaluation of desirable versus undesirable consequences is that it is generally not possible to eliminate the dysfunctional effects and keep only the functional ones. We must accept the good with the bad.

Functional versus Dysfunctional consequences
Functional consequences are desirable effects of an innovation in a social system. Dysfunctional consequences are undesirable effects of an innovation in a social system. The degree to which consequences are desirable or undesirable ultimately depends, on how the innovation affects the members of the system.
An innovation may be functional for a system but not functional for certain individuals in the system. For example fogging may keep away mosiquitoes but at the same time some people may be allergic to the smoke.
The functionality of consequences also depends on time. Obviously, an innovation’s short-range and long range effects may be quite different.
If a person is very early in adopting an innovation he may earn a lot of money in a very short while. This can be called windfall profits. Windfall profits are a special advantage earned by the first adopters of a new idea in a social system.
Windfall profits are a special advantage earned by the first adopters of a new idea in a system. Their unit costs are usually lower and their additions total production have little effect on the selling price of the product. But when all members of a system adopt a new idea, total production increases and the price of the product or service eventually drops.
A very good example are the mobile phones which entered the market sometime during the late 1990’s. Over a period of time the cost of mobiles has reduced considerably. The initial sales brought windfall profits to the manufacturers of mobile hand sets.
An innovator must take risks in order to earn windfall profits. Not all new ideas turn out successfully and occasionally the innovator gets his or her fingers burned. Adoption of a non-economic or unsuccessful innovation can result in “windfall losses” for the first individuals to adopt.

Direct versus indirect consequences,
Depending on whether the changes to an individual or to a social system     occur in immediate response to an innovation or as a second order result of the direct consequences of an innovation.
For example: The need to consume a particular food may have the direct consequence of satisfying hunger while the indirect consequence may be the impact on the health of the individual. Similarly with sanitation programmes like construction of low-cost latrines or soakage pits. The direct consequence is cleanliness of the surrounding while the indirect is the overall reduction of pollution and improvement of health.

Anticipated versus unanticipated consequences
Anticipated consequences are changes due to an innovation that are recognized and intended by the members of a social system.
Unanticipated consequences are changes due to an innovation that neither intended nor recognized by the members of a social system.
A very good example is the use of pesticides, while pesticides took care of the pests, it also polluted the environment and had harmful effects on human and animal health.

Manifest versus Latent consequences
         Manifest consequences are those changes that are recognized and intended by members of social system. These recognized change can be predicted by ultimate users. For example, the changes that would occur as a result of adoption of pressure cooker would be that the home maker would be able to save time and fuel for cooking. Therefore, the time saved can be used for other productive work. Similarly, saving on fuel would mean less expenditure in buying or producing fuel. These consequences as an effect of innovation are visible and can be recognized by users. In contrary the latent consequences are those changes that are neither recognized nor inherent. For example, displacement of farm labours due to machine processing of grain.
The undesirable, indirect and unanticipated consequences of innovations usually go together as do the desirable direct and anticipated consequences.