ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to investigate the role of the influencer in innovation adoption. It considers herd behaviors in the evolutionary perspective, as the emulative response which occurs semi-unconsciously as a means to increase survival chances. The chapter argues that the influencer triggers a herd behavior within the social community. It explores the social dynamics of innovation adoption, considering how the influencer contributes to foster a cascade of adoptions over time. The chapter examines what the role is played by the influencer in innovation adoption. It suggests that the influencer allows creating a heuristic for decision making in innovation adoption: people use the influencer behavior as a shortcut in their judgments, so that they adopt the innovation, without wasting time in the search for further information. “The diffusion process explains and predicts the time path of adoption of new products and technologies in a market, and is based on concepts and theories of communication and interaction among users”.
