Increasing Rate of Diffusion of Innovation in Supply Chain: Targeting the Early Adopters in UK Supply Chain

Innovations (technology and software) had revolutionized the modern supply chain and bring numerous benefits. Nevertheless, not all party in a supply chain is ready to embrace and adopt the innovations when they are first released due to the substantial risk and uncertainty. Early adopters however are bold enough to take the risk in trying an innovation and later lead the late adopters in using the said innovation, which also act as a motivator in helping to spread and diffuse that innovation. This research aimed to look for characteristics of early adopters in UK supply chain at the firm level, specifically within purchasing of software innovation. It is discovered that the early adopters in UK supply chain fit the description that was put forward by various researchers stating that early adopters are quick, bold and take the risk in purchasing a new software that is just released to the market even if they are expensive. They will advise other company to buy a good software. They however do not exhibit clear traits in their company profile, in terms of size, age and type of industry. The profile of the purchasing manager(s) in the firm also fail to exhibit distinct characteristics in term of gender and age. The media habit and software usage, as well as methods to gather information about new software, however reveal some positive results. They are willing to join any group in social media and they use most social media apart from LinkedIn.