Everett M. Rogers, widely known as the inventor of the "Diffusion of Innovation" theory and the term "early adopter", was an American professor, writer, sociologist, and communication scholar.
His famous "Diffusion of Innovation" theory stemmed largely from his interest in understanding why his father and other farmers in Iowa resisted using new innovations on their fields such as high-yielding hybrid seed corns. After pursuing a degree in agriculture and a PhD in sociology and statistics at Iowa State University, he popularized his "Diffusion of Innovation" theory, which seeks to explain why, how, and at what rate technology and new ideas spread through different cultures. Rogers proposed that adopters of any new idea or innovation can be categorized as innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%), and laggards (16%). These categories, which are mathematically based on the Bell curve, have served to provide a common language for innovation researchers.
Throughout the course of his career, he worked specifically on development communication, international communication, and communication theory, and taught at six universities in the US and six universities in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Of the 30 books and more than 500 articles he published, his book Diffusion of Innovations (first published in 1962 and now in its fifth edition-2003) remains the second most cited book in social sciences today.
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