Innovation Diffusion in Heterogeneous Populations: Contagion, Social Influence, and Social Learning
研究传染、社会影响和社会学习三类扩散模型，展示如何在保持分析可处理性的前提下将异质性纳入其中，并通过杂交玉米扩散的经典案例说明如何从采纳曲线形状区分这些模型。
New ideas, products, and practices take time to diffuse, a fact that is often attributed to some form of heterogeneity among potential adopters. This paper examines three broad classes of diffusion models—contagion, social influence, and social learning—and shows how to incorporate heterogeneity into each at a high level of generality without losing analytical tractability. Each type of model leaves a characteristic “footprint” on the shape of the adoption curve which provides a basis for discriminating empirically between them. The approach is illustrated using the classic study of Ryan and Gross (1943) on the diffusion of hybrid corn.