Public policy and diffusion of innovation

Marketers have traditionally studied diffusion of innovation with a primary focus on the individual consumer as a unit of analysis, the major types of findings being characteristics of adopter categories and opinion leadership. We propose that this perspective is not adequate from a macromarketing perspective, in which the goals are to set public policy for societal good or to create an environment which enables the diffusion of an innovation in a way that no single marketer could do alone. In setting public policy which can enable (or inhibit) diffusion of innovation for societal good, a system composed of a mass social infrastructure, a competitive infrastructure, and a technical infrastructure should be considered.