For this activity, you will select two individuals (friends, colleagues, and/or family members) to interview in order to determine their adopter category. You will submit your interview with the questions used and their responses along with your rationale of the adopter category in which you placed them. Compare and contrast their responses. Don’t forget to use the resource [Note to writer: Resource of Adopter Category Characteristics Word Document attached] provided in the introduction of this module.
The format of this mini paper should mirror a chapter four of a dissertation to include:
- the purpose of the interviews
- the process for conducting the interviews (by phone, by skype, face-to-face)
- an introduction to your participants
- how long the interviews lasted
- your analysis of the transcripts
- and conclusions of their adopter categories.
Include the transcripts as an appendix to the paper and follow APA guidelines for formatting the paper.
[Note to writer: The section below is an additional helpful material for you as it relates to the assignment. Please read it carefully]
Understand How to Write About Interviews in APA Style
A basic precept of the APA style is to show your sources – tell the reader where the information came from. And depending on the particular type of source, you may have a more formal citation or less formal one and there are different ways to acknowledge the different types of information. But the unifying precept is to tell the reader – How you know what you know. With interviews, we have 3 basic categories as far as APA style is concerned:
- Published: Required a formal citation and an entry in the Reference section.
- Personal: Cite as a personal communication
- E. Michael (personal communication, July 20, 2022) stated that…
- The School’s enrollment declined 15% from 2020-2021 (E. Michael, personal communication, July 20, 2022)
- Research
Describe:
The purpose of the interview
The process by which the interview was conducted
The Particpants etc…
Writing About Interviews
If you conduct and interview, but not part of a formal study, cite as a personal communication, but do not list in your Reference list.
Since you are going to compare and contrast, you will have probably more to write on the contrast side if the two individuals to be interviewed are not identical in beliefs and experience and everything like that. So, you can set yourself an easy and successful writing if you select people to interview.
You can name the participants as Participant 1 and Participant 2.
About 8 – 10 questions need to be asked to two participants. To get the best results, I would ask both participants about one specific innovation that way you will have a clear contrast.
REQUIRED BOOKS AND RESOURCES FOR COURSE #3
[Note to writer: This is the book required for the entire course. To see this week’s needed readings for the assignment, look below at the “Required Readings for this week”]
- Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press. ISBN: 9780743222099
REQUIRED READINGS FOR WEEK 4
- Chapter 6: Attributes of Innovations and their Rate of Adoption
- Chapter 7: Innovativeness and Adopter Categories
Recommended Resources
- Mahajan, V., Muller, E., & Srivastava, R. K. (1990). Determination of adopter categories by using innovation diffusion models. Journal of Marketing Research, 27(1), 37-50. [Note to writer: PDF File Attached]
- Overby, E. & Ransbotham, S. (2019). How do adopters transition between new and incumbent channels? https://acuonline.instructure.com/courses/5585/files/788276/download?download_frd=1 MIS Quarterly, 43(1), 185-205. DOI: 10.25300/MISQ/2019/13781
