Diffusion of Innovations Theory Applied: The Adoption of Digital On-Demand Technology by Book Publishers and Printers

Desktop publishing rose in popularity during the late 1980s, allowing whole documents—books, journals, reports, etc.—to be created on computers. The printing industry had to develop compatible technology to accommodate the changes in document creation. In response to desktop publishing, digital printing appeared in 1990 with the invention of computer-to-plate technology. In its earliest days, it was limited to specific commercial applications such as check and business-form printing.

An amalgam of several technologies, digital printing has evolved and on-demand printing has matured into a book-printing technology that starts with the creation of a document and ends with the shipping of the final product. Digital on-demand technology is especially applicable to the printing of non-fiction, educational, reference and scholarly books—books with a limited or small audience—and out-of-print books.

With the development and application of digital prepress and ondemand printing, publishers are no longer forced to print hundreds of thousands of books in one run—many of which are heavily discounted, returned and recycled. Small presses can prosper and expand by adding new authors to their lists of books in print. Digital on-demand printing opens a new future for books, which were the first media—a link that people in most cultures had to other cultures—and ensures that they will not b rendered obsolete by the digital and electronic media.

This study used an interview inquiry tool to acquire information regarding technology acquisition choices made by six representative printers and publishers. Designed around the components of diffusion of innovations theory as propounded by Everett M. Rogers, it goes beyond the the traditional answers—economics and status—and ferrets out the deeper issues and motivations involved in the adoption of new technology.

Responses to interview questions also provided insight into the media methods used for disseminating information about new technologies to selected book publishers, printers and publisher-printers. This aspect of the study focused on the role of trade magazines as sources of information through articles, marketing campaigns and advertising.