The acceptance and diffusion of new consumer durables: differences between first and last adopters

The diffusion process of an innovation, whether it be a product, a service or an idea, will vary in function of the characteristics of that innovation, as well as of the agents to whom it is directed. The objective of this paper is to differentiate the behaviour of the different adopter categories that emerge at the time of the adoption of new products. Uses the methodology proposed by Mahajan et al., based on the Bass model, which allows for a distinction to be drawn between five categories of adopters, namely innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards, with reference to the acceptance process for new consumer durables. This is employed in an empirical application carried out with respect to the adoption of various consumer durables that are frequently found in the majority of households, whilst the demographic and socio‐economic characteristics of the individuals who make up each adopter category are used in order to differentiate their behaviour.