The book uses state-of-the-art theorizing about a topic that has attracted a lot of attention in the past five years or so. It provides a very useful review of the literature, and is very well written and on a novel topic. I especially liked the methodological rigour in the exposition of the model, yet at the same time the text remains accessible to a wide readership. I highly recommend the book. Koen Frenken, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Modern economies are described as knowledge based . This book investigates the meaning of such a statement, assessing the relevance of knowledge and the channels through which knowledge is exchanged, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. Moving within the realm of complexity theory, the authors provide a methodological assessment of the knowledge diffusion debate as well as presenting theoretical and applied models of knowledge diffusion and innovation. They illustrate how geography plays a role in shaping innovative patterns and how dense networks generally result in more innovative environments. The book concludes that establishing the right connections within such dense networks appears to be more crucial than any other factor, thus highlighting the importance of linkages (or the effects of their absence) within innovation systems. Proposing a taxonomy of knowledge-sharing patterns, this book will be warmly welcomed by academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of the economics of innovation, evolutionary economics and knowledge economics.

This important book is about the origins and diffusion of innovation, in theory and in practice. The practice draws on a variety of industries, from electronics to eyewear, from furniture to mechatronics, in a range of economies including Europe, USA and China.

Getting an innovation adopted is difficult; a common problem is increasing the rate of its diffusion. Diffusion is the communication of an innovation through certain channels over time among members of a social system. It is a communication whose messages are concerned with new ideas; it is a process where participants create and share information to achieve a mutual understanding. Initial chapters of the book discuss the history of diffusion research, some major criticisms of diffusion research, and the meta-research procedures used in the book. This text is the third edition of this well-respected work. The first edition was published in 1962, and the fifth edition in 2003. The book's theoretical framework relies on the concepts of information and uncertainty. Uncertainty is the degree to which alternatives are perceived with respect to an event and the relative probabilities of these alternatives; uncertainty implies a lack of predictability and motivates an individual to seek information. A technological innovation embodies information, thus reducing uncertainty. Information affects uncertainty in a situation where a choice exists among alternatives; information about a technological innovation can be software information or innovation-evaluation information. An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or an other unit of adoption; innovation presents an individual or organization with a new alternative(s) or new means of solving problems. Whether new alternatives are superior is not precisely known by problem solvers. Thus people seek new information. Information about new ideas is exchanged through a process of convergence involving interpersonal networks. Thus, diffusion of innovations is a social process that communicates perceived information about a new idea; it produces an alteration in the structure and function of a social system, producing social consequences. Diffusion has four elements: (1) an innovation that is perceived as new, (2) communication channels, (3) time, and (4) a social system (members jointly solving to accomplish a common goal). Diffusion systems can be centralized or decentralized. The innovation-development process has five steps passing from recognition of a need, through R&D, commercialization, diffusions and adoption, to consequences. Time enters the diffusion process in three ways: (1) innovation-decision process, (2) innovativeness, and (3) rate of the innovation's adoption. The innovation-decision process is an information-seeking and information-processing activity that motivates an individual to reduce uncertainty about the (dis)advantages of the innovation. There are five steps in the process: (1) knowledge for an adoption/rejection/implementation decision; (2) persuasion to form an attitude, (3) decision, (4) implementation, and (5) confirmation (reinforcement or rejection). Innovations can also be re-invented (changed or modified) by the user. The innovation-decision period is the time required to pass through the innovation-decision process. Rates of adoption of an innovation depend on (and can be predicted by) how its characteristics are perceived in terms of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. The diffusion effect is the increasing, cumulative pressure from interpersonal networks to adopt (or reject) an innovation. Overadoption is an innovation's adoption when experts suggest its rejection. Diffusion networks convey innovation-evaluation information to decrease uncertainty about an idea's use. The heart of the diffusion process is the modeling and imitation by potential adopters of their network partners who have adopted already. Change agents influence innovation decisions in a direction deemed desirable. Opinion leadership is the degree individuals influence others' attitudes.

Since the first edition of this landmark book was published in 1962, Everett Rogers's name has become "virtually synonymous with the study of diffusion of innovations," according to Choice. The second and third editions of Diffusion of Innovations became the standard textbook and reference on diffusion studies. Now, in the fourth edition, Rogers presents the culmination of more than thirty years of research that will set a new standard for analysis and inquiry. The fourth edition is (1) a revision of the theoretical framework and the research evidence supporting this model of diffusion, and (2) a new intellectual venture, in that new concepts and new theoretical viewpoints are introduced. This edition differs from its predecessors in that it takes a much more critical stance in its review and synthesis of 5,000 diffusion publications. During the past thirty years or so, diffusion research has grown to be widely recognized, applied and admired, but it has also been subjected to both constructive and destructive criticism. This criticism is due in large part to the stereotyped and limited ways in which many diffusion scholars have defined the scope and method of their field of study. Rogers analyzes the limitations of previous diffusion studies, showing, for example, that the convergence model, by which participants create and share information to reach a mutual understanding, more accurately describes diffusion in most cases than the linear model. Rogers provides an entirely new set of case examples, from the Balinese Water Temple to Nintendo videogames, that beautifully illustrate his expansive research, as well as a completely revised bibliography covering all relevant diffusion scholarship in the past decade. Most important, he discusses recent research and current topics, including social marketing, forecasting the rate of adoption, technology transfer, and more. This all-inclusive work will be essential reading for scholars and students in the fields of communications, marketing, geography, economic development, political science, sociology, and other related fields for generations to come.

Technological and knowledge diffusion through innovative networks / Beatriz Helena Neto, Jano Moreira de Souza and Jonice de Oliveira -- Knowledge flow networks and communities of practice for knowledge management / Rajiv Khosla [und weitere] -- A case study of knowledge sharing in Finnish Laurea lab as a knowledge intensive organization / Abel Usoro and Grzegorz Majewski -- The role of "BriDGE" SE in knowledge sharing : a case study of software offshoring from Japan to Vietnam / Nguyen Thu Huong and Umemoto Katsuhiro -- Factors influencing knowledge sharing in immersive virtual worlds : an empirical study with a second life group / Grzegorz Majewski and Abel Usoro -- Re-establishing grassroots inventors in national innovation system in less innovative Asian countries / C.N. Wickramasinghe [und weitere] -- Knowledge management & collaboration in steel industry : a case study / Chagari Sasikala -- Contingency between knowledge characteristics and knowledge transfer mechanism : an integrative framework / Ziye Li and Youmin Xi -- Emotionally intelligent knowledge sharing behavior model for constructing psychologically and emotionally fit research teams / R. Khosla [und weitere] -- Fundamental for an IT-strategy toward managing viable knowledge-intensive research projects / Paul Pöltner and Thomas Grechenig -- A new framework of knowledge management based on the interaction between human capital and organizational capital / Zheng Fan, Shujing Cao and Fenghua Wang -- Knowledge management of healthcare by clinical-pathways / Tomoyoshi Yamazaki and Katsuhiro Umemoto -- Factors affecting knowledge management at a public health institute in Thailand / Vallerut Pobkeeree, Pathom Sawanpanyalert and Nirat Sirichotiratana -- The influence of knowledge management capabilities and knowledge management infrastructure on market-interrelationship performance : an empirical study on hospitals / Wen-Ting Li and Shin-Tuan Hung -- Functional dynamics in system of innovation : a general model of SI metaphoric from traditional Chinese medicine / Xi Sun, Xin Tian and Xingmai Deng -- Collaborative writing with a wiki in a primary five English classroom / Matsuko Woo [und weitere] -- Cross-language knowledge sharing model based on ontologies and logical inference / Weisen Guo and Steven B. Kraines -- A study of evaluating the value of social tags as indexing terms / Kwan Yi -- Leadership 2.0 and Web2.0 at ERM : a journey from knowledge management to "knowledging" / Cheuk Wai-yi Bonnie and Brenda Dervin -- Motivation, identity, and authoring of the wikipedian / Joseph C. Shih and C.K. Farn -- Intellectual capital and performance : an empirical study on the relationship between social capital and R & D performance in higher education / Mohd Iskandar Bin Illyas, Rose Alinda Alia and Leela Damodaran -- Managing knowledge in a volunteer-based community / John S. Huck, Rodney A. and Dinesh Rathi -- Knowledge management practices in a not for profit organizations : a case study of I2E / Matthew Broaddus and Suliman Hawamdeh -- Personal information management tools revisited / Yun-Ke Chang [und weitere] -- Competencies sought by knowledge management employers : context analysis of online job advertisements / Shaheen Majid and Rianto Mulia -- Migration or integration : knowledge management in library and information science profession / Manir Abdullahi Kamba and Roslina Othman -- Evaluating intellectual assets in university libraries : a multi-site case study from Thailand / Sheila Corrall and Somsak Sriborisutsakul -- From for-profit organizations to non-profit organizations : the development of knowledge management in a public library / Kristen Holm, Kelly Kirkpatrick and Dinesh Rathi -- Network structure, structural equivalence and group performance : a simulation research on knowledge process / Hua Zhang and Youmin Xi -- Exploring the knowledge creating communities : an analysis of the linux kernel developer community / Haoxiang Xia, Shuangling Luo and Taketoshi Yoshida -- Systemic thinking in knowledge management / Yoshiteru Nakamori -- Study on the methods of identification and judgment for opinion leaders in public opinion / Liu Yijun, Tang Xi Jin and Gu Jifa

This book analyses situations in which individual agents, who might be different from each other, interact and produce behaviour on the aggregate level which does not correspond to that of the average actor. This leads to aggregate outcomes which would be impossible to explain in a more standard approach. Aggregation generates structure and, as a result, interaction and heterogeneity can be handled and we no longer have to rely on the over-simplified reduction of the behaviour of the economy to that of a "rational" individual.

The director of communication is an impassioned profession that discovers which strategies are the best and the most intelligent. There are few manuals, and there are some that offer general and sparsely updated information about the change that new technologies imply. We find the literature isolated that can be directly useful. However, we will say that there is no single recipe for DirCom or communication consultants. Each one will offer different models according to the variables or factors that seem to them to be able to rectify the direction of a company according to his or her personal mood.