Rapid innovation diffusion in social networks

Gabriel Kreindler, H. Peyton Young · 2014 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Summary. This paper establishes that innovations spread rapidly through social networks when the payoff advantage is sufficiently large and agents make noisy decisions. The researchers derive bounds showing diffusion speed depends primarily on payoff gains and decision noise rather than network structure. They demonstrate that with realistic parameters—such as 5% error rates and 150% payoff gains—innovations establish themselves across any network within 80 revision periods on average.

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Kreindler, G., & Young, H. P.. (2014). Rapid innovation diffusion in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400842111

@article{kreindler-2014-rapid-innovation-diffusion-social-networks,
  title   = {Rapid innovation diffusion in social networks},
  author  = {Gabriel Kreindler and H. Peyton Young},
  journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  year    = {2014},
  doi     = {10.1073/pnas.1400842111},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400842111}
}

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TI  - Rapid innovation diffusion in social networks
AU  - Gabriel Kreindler
AU  - H. Peyton Young
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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DO  - 10.1073/pnas.1400842111
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Details

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1400842111
Countries: United States, United Kingdom
Regions: North America, Europe
Categories: innovation-theory, innovation-networks, general-innovation
Added: 2026-04-28