Final answer:
The diffusion of innovation concept explains how new ideas, products, or behaviors spread across a population, often leading to market saturation. It involves not only technological innovation but also cultural practices that are transmitted globally. The process is framed by models that suggest an evolutionary path of technological development.
Step-by-step explanation:
The diffusion of innovation concept, first introduced by sociologist Everett Rogers in 1962, refers to the manner in which a new idea, product, or behavior takes hold and spreads through a specific population or society. This concept illustrates how an innovation reaches market saturation by being adopted progressively by consumers, eventually achieving widespread usage. Through Rogers's Technology Adoption Lifecycle, we observe how these innovations diffuse from early adopters to the late majority, though the model serves as a general pattern rather than a precise prediction for all innovations.
In the context of cultural change, diffusion also encompasses the spread of ideas and practices from one culture to another, often independent of the physical goods associated with them; for example, how culinary preferences or political movements can traverse borders through globalization.
Technological evolution, as suggested by Anderson and Tushman (1990), follows an evolutionary model where a technological breakthrough leads to various versions until a prototype emerges. After a series of incremental changes and possibly disruptive breakthroughs, a new generation of technology supersedes the old, as seen in the transition from floppy disks to flash drives.