Public Policy and Diffusion of Innovation

Marketers have traditionally studied diffusionof innovation with a primary focus on theindividual consumer as a unit of analysis, themajor types of findings being characteristicsof adopter categories and opinion leadership. We propose that this perspective is notadequate from a macromarketing perspective, inwhich the goals are to set public policy forsocietal good or to create an environment whichenables the diffusion of an innovation in a waythat no single marketer could do alone. Insetting public policy which can enable (orinhibit) diffusion of innovation for societalgood, a system composed of a mass socialinfrastructure, a competitive infrastructure,and a technical infrastructure should beconsidered.