diffusion-of-innovation theory applied to a student startup
Open Access
- Author:
- Bhandari, Mridul
- Area of Honors:
- Elective Area of Honors - Engineering Entrepreneurship
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Robert Macy, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- diffusion of innovation
startup
entrepreneurship
drunk deliveries - Abstract:
- Diffusion-of-Innovation methodology has been applied to a student entrepreneurship class project to analyze how the information spread so that the knowledge can be applied by future startups using social media as their main form of marketing and promotions. This research stems from a business project that was conducted a year ago and that primarily used Facebook to channel information about their food delivery service in State College, PA. Although the project only covered weekends during a four-week time period—after which it was decided not to continue as a business—the service continued to receive inquiries and orders from all over the United States. This thesis uses Diffusion-of-Innovation theory to find the point at which the service should have changed their marketing technique. Other questions that were analyzed were to find if social media affected accuracy of information and geographical distance as a function of each other and a function of time. The results indicate that the service should have changed their marketing technique from early adopter marketing to mainstream marketing within two weeks of the initiation of their venture. It is also seen that geographical distance, accuracy of information, and time do not have any statistically significant correlations. This shows that social media accomplishes its purpose in eradicating issues with the reach of information.