Managing Innovation: Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory

This article discusses the concept of managing innovation and explores Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory. It analyzes the application of this theory in the context of Lime, a transportation company. The article also discusses Lime's future development plans and the role of business models in innovation.

Managing Innovation
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Table Of Contents
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………3
Rogers’ Innovation Diffusion Theory………………………………………………………3
Application of Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation theory……………………………………..6
Application of Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation theory in the future development context…8
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………..9
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………….10
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INTRODUCTION
Managing innovation can be defined in the manner that to come up with the
introduction of something new. It is similar to something which is concerned with inventing
something new in terms of the product and also needs to introduce into the world. This can be
managed into the very innovative manner. (Teece, D. J., 2016). Management innovation
somewhere defined in the manner that handling of all those kinds of activities something new
which is required to introduce which in practice means things like coming up with ideas,
creating, giving first preference and implementing them as well as putting them into practice.
One of the innovation theories is the base of analysis in this report. The analysis has been
done on the for the particular organisation with respect to the particular theory which explains
the historical development of one or more products and services. The research has been done
on the particular theory which recommends the possible future growth roadsof services and
products for the particular organisation. The chosen organisation is Lime. It is a
transportation company which is based in San Francisco, USA. It is the company which is
founded on a simple idea that all communities deserve access to smart, affordable mobility.
Rogers’ Innovation Diffusion Theory
This theory has been introduced in the year of 1962 by Everett Rogers. This theory
provides the factors which influence an individual’s choices about an innovation and the
foundation for understanding innovation adoption. This theory is in terms of broad spectrum
across many contexts which lends itself to being flexible. Under this theory, there are four
major factors of this theory which are named as the innovation, communication channels
used to broadcast information about the innovation, the social system existing around the
adopters/ non-adopters of the innovation and the time taken by the individuals to move
through the adoption process. (Ali, and et.al., 2016). Why an individual has to choose the
adopt and innovation or not has been understood through the interaction of different
components. This theory is the process or innovation decision which leads towards the
adoption or rejection of the innovation. In this process, the potential adopters have to move
through the five levels it presents. The first level is concerned about its function and the
seeking knowledge about the innovation. The second level is concerned about the persuasion
where about the innovation the potential adopter formulates an opinion. The third level is
about when a decision needs to be taken to adopt or reject the innovation. And in the last
stage which is fifth level where the adopter reaches to the confirmation stage where they seek
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reinforcement of their decision to adopt the innovation. There are four major principles of
diffusion of innovation theory which has been explained into the following manner:
 The innovation itself: The innovation plays a very important role in terms of business
as well as into the theory also. It is relative to the current knowledge of the analyzed
unit where the innovation is a broad category. (Thoe, N. K. and Baharum, B., 2020).
Innovation which is available for study could be considered as any idea, object or
practice which is perceived as new by an individual.
 Communication channels: Diffusion has been taken place among the people or
organisations. It gives the facility with respect to the information transfer from one
terms to the another. The patterns of communication must be established between
parties as a minimum for diffusion to other.
 Time: The innovations which has been going to adopted is necessary for the passage
of time. This has been adopted into the rarely manner in terms of the instantaneous
way.
 Social System: It is the which is the combination of external influences and the
internal influences under the social system . The external influences includes mass
media, organisational mandates. The internal influences includes the strong and weak
social relationships, distance from opinion leaders. The total influences on a potential
adopter represents the many roles and their combination in a social system.
Roger has identified that affect whether an innovation is adopted or not through the five
attributes which extends beyond the adoption process. It includes the relative change,
compatibility, complexity, trial ability and observe ability. Relative advantage can be defined
in the manner that how much greater or lesser the benefits of the innovation compared to the
alternatives. Compatibility tells about how much the innovation fits with the potential
adopter’s existing process or workflow. (James, E. and Taylor, A. eds., 2018). Under the
innovation process the more difficult to learn and adopt the innovation is perceived to be, the
less likely to be there to adopt it. This has happened due to the reason of high complexity to
be perceived. Triability has been defined in the manner that when the potential adopter has
the opportunity to try and test or experiment the innovation before making any decision in
this category then it comes under the trial parameter. (Aminullah, and et.al., 2017).
Observability occurs in that case when the innovation has been adopted and diffused across
the people within the cultural system who had not previously thought about adopting it or not
or at least change their minds to adopt the innovation. Under the process of diffusion of
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innovation theory it is the process by which the adoption of an innovation is spread over time
to members of a target market by communication. (Kim, and et.al., 2016). There are some
parameters which require the understanding of the diffusion process which includes the
nature of the adoption, the element of time, the target market and communication within and
across the group.
There are some benefits of the evaluation of the diffusion of innovation theory. The
importance of it has been divided on the five parts. It includes knowledge, persuasion,
decision, implementation and confirmation.
 Knowledge: Knowledge is very important and it really matters because it represents
as the first time a potential customer experiences the new idea, product or service for
the very first time. The more consumer hears and sees about an idea then they are
more engage towards it.
 Persuasion: Once the consumer hears about the product then the company’s goal is to
persuade them to use it and buy it. (Boyles, J. L., 2016). In the upside manner , the
company more convey about the product the better the odds of a sale.
 Decision: Under this head, Rogers finds out that the consumer take decision on the
basis of irrational decisions thus making decisions the most difficult phase for
companies looking to sell the product , service or data.
 Implementation: Under this head, the challenge for the company is that to provide the
right information in a post-sale environment. (Grote, G., 2016). The good new is that
the consumer wants to keep the product and wants to use it into the correct manner so
it depends on the company to up the ante on access to good product and data
information and make sure the customer gets it.
 Confirmation: Under this phase, the consumer wants to confirm with their friends and
family, through the internet regarding the product review sites that the product is
doing what is intended to do. This is the good opportunity for companies to garner
repeat customers, so good customer-service in a post-sale scenario is vital.
There are some limitations of diffusion of innovation theory which has been discussed into
the following manner:
 This theory does not foster for the participatory approach to adoption of a publich
health program
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 This theory works well with the adoption of behaviours rather than the prevention of
behaviours
 For adopting the new behaviour it does not take into account the social support or an
individual’s resources.
 There are lots of evidence for this theory which includes the adopter categories which
did not originate from public health and it was not developed explicitly for the
application of adoption of new behaviours or health innovations.
So these are the advantages and limitations of the evaluation of diffusion of innovation
theory.
Application of Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation theory
With reference to the company, with the equitable distribution of shared scooters,
bikes and transit vehicles. The company aims to reduce dependence on the personal
automobiles for short distance transportation and leave future generations with a cleaner and
healthier planet. (Van Dyck, and et.al., 2016). Brad Bao and Toby Sun founded the Lime
Bike in the yare of 2017. They were the executives of Fosun International’s venture capital
arm. The company’s was first launched in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
with 125 bicycles. The company has expanded themselves in the year of 2017 to the cities of
Key Biscayne, Florida, South Bend, Indiana and South Lake Tahoe, California. As of
October 2017, the company had 150,000 users. In the year 2018 january the company has
announced at CES 2018 that they would begin a trial of electric bikes branded lime-E in San
Francisco. (Veselovsky, and et.al., 2016). In the following month the Lime-S electric scooters
were announced. In the year 2018 May, the company has announced the initial growth of
transit pods, small-self driving electric vehicles. The company has signed a deal with Uber to
provide them with electric bikes for purpose of expansion of their Uber bikes service in the
year 2018 August. (Serhan, H. and Saïdi-Kabeche, D., 2020). Lime also announced the
release of a new model e-scooter with larger wheels. It is built in the suspension and an
aluminium frame to combat vandalism and extend vehicle life. In the year September 2019,
the company was recognised as one of the Linkdin’s top start-ups for that particular year. It
was the first time that the company has been listed and ranked at no 12 amongst the list of 50
start ups. The company has acquired the business of Jump e-bike and scooter from Uber in
the year of 2020 May. The funding has been received by the Uber company of around 170 $
million with bain capital ventures and GV participating. (Doz, Y., 2016). In the year of
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November 2020, the company has recognized or reported as the first profitable quarter and
predicts the year 2021 as the full-year profitability. According to the Time Magazine in the
year April 2021, the company is listed as one of the 2021 Time 100 most influential
companies.
There are some business models which has been used by the Lime Company. Lime is that
company which emerge as the successful leaders in e-scooter rentals which is for the purpose
of simplified commuting and gives an opportunity for an easy to use way. (Abdallah, and
et.al., 2016). It is required from the users side to install the app find the nearby scooters via
the enabled GPS feature and unlock it with the mobile app. There are majorly four different
electric scooter models which are currently in use. These are named as the Lime-S Ninebot
ES4 which is made by segway with the extra battery attached to it on to the main pole.
Second is Lime-S generation 1 and the Lime –S generation 2. Business model of the Lime
app, it is basically an app-based platform to book electric kick-scooters & bike-sharing
services. This platform provides the facility for finding out the users to find the nearest
available scooter. So business models plays a very important role into practical environment
and also act as the important parameter for finding out the best possible outcome for the
company. Basically business models are for the purpose of enhancing towards the direct
sales, franchising, advertising-based and brick and mortar stores are all examples of
traditional business models. So this theory is very important in terms of increasing the
efficiency of the company and also about maintaining the proper results for the company in
terms of the performance.
Application of Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation theory in the future development context
In terms of the future development of the company, it has comes with various types of
ideas, innovation and invention due to which it needs to be implemented into the positive
manner. Lime is launching the its fourth generation scooter in the Paris which is an example
the company says about its financial growth and turnaround in terms of their progress. The
CEO of the company said that there is a third mode beyond the bikes and scooters which
works in the first quarter of 2021. (Grieco, C. and Cerruti, C., 2018). It will act as the
addition of third-party companies to its platform. The company has already planned for
including the wheels branded electric bikes in certain cities on its app. The company is also
now focusing on deploying the generation 4 which is a model will surpass the more than two
year lifespan of its previous generation. The generation 4 has spread its wings across Europe
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in the year 2021. The work which has been done under the category of generation 4 was done
by the engineers at Uber’s Jump micro mobility unit. The features of generation 4 is mostly
similar to the design of bike handles which Lime says allows for a more comfortable grip.
The company needs to come up with a strong plan for the purpose of their growth because
due to COVID situation it has to face its lots of time while waiting for getting the situation
get normalised. (Matthews, M., 2015). In this pandemic situation, they have to face lots of
losses and they can’t earn as compared to their previous situation because everybody has
almost lost their job and people don’t have money to spend on unnecessary items. And in this
time frame people are more focused towards the saving the money and invest in that area so
that it will act as the extra income for them. The company needs to create the awareness
about their products and their importance in terms of the growth. They can come with the
idea of more electric and solar generated battery charged models so that they don’t need the
electricity into the artificial form. They can use the sunlight or solar power panels for
charging their electric vehicles. And the use of these kind of vehicles helps in reducing the
pollution level in the environment. The awareness regarding this part is very important in
terms of conservation of energy as well as the environment also. The plan for future
development should be designed into such a manner that it can be executed into the
successful manner as well as in the practical way also. The company also needs to make a
plan for improving their website so that they can attract large number of customers and act as
the important parameter for the growth of the company. They should hire the technical and
advance team who is specialise in improving the website as well as designed in such a
manner that it will come out it into the unique manner. The Lime company’s app should be so
comfortable in nature that it can be easily accessible and flexible in the nature so that
customers don’t feel any problem while serving the app. Because into this competitive
market, there are lots of options for the company that it can switch to another option in a very
easy manner. The app should be designed in this manner that it will give easier options to
their customers so that they can easily find out about their necessary want or about the
particular product. The website of the company should give enough information about their
company so that they can attract the international clients as well as to different types of
references also which supports into the company’s growth. (Goodman, and et.al., 2017). The
website should be free from the hang nature and it should be fast in nature in terms of loading
the page so that customers don’t get any chance to switch on the another option. The plan of
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action of the company should be in this manner that it gives results to the company as well as
it can be shown to their customers into the positive manner.
In terms of the future plan for the company first of all they need to analyse the market trends
and the requirement of the company. Then they have to set the criteria that how much time
they will take for coming up with the new idea and new invention. That’s why its important
to target the product and launch into the specific countries so that they can earn the maximum
revenue as well as earn into the financial manner on the large scale. That’s why its important
that everything should be planned into the proper manner and executed into the positive
spectrum.
CONCLUSION
Managing innovation is a very important task into the business world. Innovation is a
kind of parameter which is very necessary for the company’s growth and in terms of the
financial manner also. It is important that to analyse in the market before launching the
product into the realistic manner and it should be implemented into the practical nature. In the
organisation, the innovation should be managed into the proper steps so that it can be
successful at the every level. (DaSilva, C. M., 2019). In terms of successful launching of the
innovation it needs to understand that what is the current trend of the market and what is the
requirement at the international level which makes them unique in the market and can stand
strongly into the market in the practical manner. For managing the innovation it is important
to analyse that where are the lack points in the product so that nobody can point out into the
practical nature in the coming future. In this way, the company needs to prepare themselves
into the realistic and into the practical nature. That’s why managing the innovation is not only
challenging but also act as the important parameter for the growth of the company.
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REFERENCES
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