Diffusion of Innovations, Fifth Edition

Recommended by Julian De Freitas, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

For decades, this book has served as a foundational framework for understanding how new ideas, products, and technologies take hold. Grounded in empirical research across rural sociology, anthropology, and medical sociology, Rogers’ model maps the key attributes of innovations that influence the adoption, the sequential stages of diffusion, and the pivotal role of communication channels. Yet the arrival of transformative digital technologies — from generative AI and autonomous systems to social media ecosystems and bioengineered therapies — poses a formidable challenge to this original theory. These radical innovations are evolving in ways that stretch beyond Rogers’ original premises, prompting critical reassessment. I’ve returned to his classic work not out of nostalgia, but to interrogate which core assumptions must be fundamentally rethought if we are to meaningfully explain how contemporary innovations penetrate today’s more complex marketplace.