ABSTRACT
The adoption and diffusion of technology are important for economic development. Five adopter groups are discussed to provide insight into differences in adoption decisions. The five adopter groups are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. For a high technology such as additive manufacturing, there are complications identified as a ‘crack’ between the innovators and the early adopters and a chasm between the early adopters and the early majority. In particular, crossing the chasm is challenging because of crucial differences between the first two adopter groups that are looking for a change agent and something that gives them a jump on the competition versus the early majority that is buying a productivity improvement and is looking for a well-established technology with limited discontinuity in their operations.
