Categorising the Adopters of Agricultural Practices

Categorising the Adopters of Agricultural Practices

Everett M Rogers. 1958. (View Paper → )

"A method is suggested by which the adopters of agricultural practices may be classified into the five adopter categories of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The criterion of classification may be either on the basis of (1) the time of adoption of a single new farm practice or (2) an adoption of farm practices scale.

This adopter frequency distribution is common across many fields. This paper is its origin. "Innovators" and "early adopters" are now common phrases in product management. Geoffrey Moore and others have built on these ideas, clarifying their practical implications for product managers and entrepreneurs.