29 



b. There is a marked difference between "early adopters" of 

 an innovation and those who adopt innovations later in the 

 cycle (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971: 175-196). Usually, the 

 "early adopters" are unusual individuals, sometimes even marginal 

 or imperfectly integrated into the community. Typically these 

 people repeatedly adopt innovations, despite the fact that they 

 are inevitably sanctioned to one extent or another (Barnett, 1953; 

 Merton, 1968: Chap. 10; Rogers and Burdge , 1972; Chap. 13; Ryan, 

 1969: Chaps 5 & 6) . Only after the innovation is established 

 and/or obviously profitable will it be accepted by the rest of 

 the community. A few people adopt innovations long after every- 

 one else, if they adopt them at all. 



c. Many innovations are never accepted by the people of a 

 given culture. Whether or not an innovation is accepted depends 

 on a wide variety of social and economic factors (Wharton, 1972) . 

 However, several factors are mentioned repeatedly: a. profita- 

 bility or utility of the innovation, b. com.patability with 

 existing norms (Linton, 1936: 341), c. where the innovation 

 consists of new productive techniques, potential innovators must 

 be able to obtain the minimum set of factors necessary for a 

 viable business or production operation (Acheson, 1972a; Gold, 

 Pierce and Rosseger, 1975; Kunkel, 1970: 262-274). 



d. The speed with v;hich the innovations are accepted again 

 depends on a variety of factors: profitability (Mansfield, 1968: 

 4-5) ; social factors affecting the transmission of skills and 

 technical information (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971: 200 ff.); the 



