The diffusion of the Bookstart programme in Taiwan: description, concepts and research design

Abstract

Service delivery innovations have taken hold in local governments across the globe. Attention is largely focused on innovations in the West. This symposium of the Asian Journal of Public Policy provides evidence from Taiwan and examines an early years education programme called Bookstart. This introductory article presents a framework of competing concepts for the study of innovation diffusion. The framework draws attention to questions of partnership, organizational variables, personnel characteristics, constraints and opportunities in the external environment, knowledge utilization and the consequences of innovation. In conclusion, the common methods used in the studies are laid out and the articles described.

Keywords:

• innovation diffusion
• internal determinants
• external determinants
• Bookstart

Notes

^1. For a comprehensive discussion on the dependent variables of diffusion, see Berry and Berry (2007, p. 178).

^2. Taichung county and Taichung city were merged as the Taichung Special Municipality. Government (Taichung City) on 25 December 2010. All 21 townships of the original Taichung County have become part of the 29 districts of Taichung City.