Dynamic Diffusion of Innovations: A Leader-Imitator Combined Structure Pattern

In this research, a model of diffusion of innovations was built in markets where the set of ultimate adopters consists of two segments: leaders, who are more in touch with new developments and who also affect the other segment, pure imitators, whose own adoptions do not affect leaders. The main results are: (1) the speed of innovations diffusion is not a monotonic process but a process of ascending in the beginning and descending after; (2) diffusion in a mixture of leaders and imitators can exhibit a ldquogaprdquo between the early and later stages of the diffusion curve; (3) leaders play a critical role in the whole process of innovations diffusion.