International diffusion of innovations : a case study of the diffusion of the concept of integrated river basin development in developing countries
Date
1978
Authors
Okyere, Kingsley Opoku
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Abstract
One of the dilemmas challenging developing countries is the selection of appropriate strategies to achieving economic and social development comparable to the levels in the developed countries of Europe and North America. In the last few decades, on the advice of experts, various sectoral and spatial strategies have been tested; none of which has been overwhelmingly successful.
One response to this apparent impasse in development has bee natural resources development, especially water resource development. With the respect to the latter, proponents point to the concept of integrated river basin development. It is argued that the concept holds the key to the social and economic development because the river basin is a system in dynamic equilibrium and is more easily influenced by man through manipulation of factors which dominate the local scene and which mask broad regional patterns of basin and stream behaviour.
However, besides this theoretical argument for the adoption of the concept, very little experience exists of the conditions under which the implementation of the idea could be successful in the developing countries. Existing evidence is based solely on work done in the advanced countries. Perhaps as a result, the use of the idea was until the 1940's localized - restricted to North America and Europe. That is, it was not until the 1940's that it was adopted in some developing countries. Existing evidence is based solely on work done in the advanced countries. Since then, the pace of the adoption behaviour raises questions such as where and when the concept was adopted and why the relatively late and slow rate of adoption in spite of the proclaimed advantages.
Diffusion research offers some explanation for the variations in the spread of phenomena. Among the explanations is that the diffusion process is influenced by the characteristics of the adoption unit and the innovation. Using this as the theoretical premise, the adoption of the concept of integrated river basin development in 24 African, Asian and Latin American countries between 1940 and 1971 is analyzed, with the aid of correlation, stepwise regression, and discriminant techniques.
The results show that fewer countries than expected have adopted the idea. IT is also evident that not only were the adoption rates in the countries related to a number of political, social, economic, and physical characteristics of the countries as well as one characteristic of the innovation, but also some of these variables significantly influenced the adoption rates. The important variables were: year of entry into the United Nations; year of the political independence; gross national product; size of the river basin in the country; and the relative advantage of the innovation.
The analyses further show that the importance of these factors varied from one region to another, suggesting the existence of different factors in the development processes of the developing countries. While political factors were important in Latin America, political and socio-economic factors were paramount in Asia. In Africa, physical variables such as the size of the river basins were the most important.