2. Diffusion of Innovations in West Africa: A New Look at the Western Model

At the current level of development in the study area of Togo, several of the variable relationships consistently found in western research did not obtain. Education, for example, 1ed respondents away from agriculture to new areas of interest. It is felt that the path analysis model helped to explain the complex pattern of association and focus upon other variable relationships than those traditionally examined. It was thought that the adoption variable would correlate significantly with structural differentiation supporting the argument that adoption is a function of both the level and timing of societal development. This relationship may have been affected by the limited range in the adoption variable. The relationship was somewhat stronger between ownership and structural differentiation. It is suggested that further research be conducted to investigate the full adoption process and elaborate the present theoretical structure to discriminate among societies at different levels or times of social and economic development. In summary, it can be said that use of the western diffusion model in the study situation has resulted in unexpected and inconsistent findings. These inconsistencies may have been beneficial, however, in stimulating further development of the model and understanding diffusion as one aspect of the overall modernization process.