A Study of a Radical Diffusion of Local Innovation: A Case Study of the “Rural Homestay Experience” Program in Ie Island

Abstract

It is well known amongst diffusion scholars that there is a positive correlation between the relative advantage of a highly profitable innovation and the speed of its uptake. However, there is an additional correlation between the pursuit of social benefit innovation as it strives to solve social problems and its speed of adoption. Furthermore, in the process of the diffusion of innovation from the innovator through the opinion leaders and onto the early majority to late majority stages, the pursuit of social benefit will be negatively impacted when profit seeking becomes an unbalanced focus or priority. The innovative “rural homestay experience” program on Ie Island, an isolated island in the north of Okinawa, provides a powerful example of this phenomenon.