Used in the context of diffusion of innovation, persons or firms that adopt an innovation are often classified into five groups according to the sequence of their adoption:
(1) innovators (the first 2 to 5 percent),
(2) early adopters (the next 10 to 15 percent), early majority (the next 35 percent), late majority (the next 35 percent), and laggards (the final 5 to 20 percent). The numbers are percentages of the total number of actual adopters, not of the total number of persons or firms in the marketplace. However, there is wide disagreement among the experts on the exact percentage in each category.
