Approaches to the study of implementation

This paper draws from an intensive review of measurement in previous investigations of implementation to examine the relationship of this construct to other innovation processes. It is suggested that implementation be viewed as a separate phase in a total technology transfer process, with clear analytic distinction from both innovation adoption and evaluation of outcomes. A framework for developing measures of implementation is presented, based on distinguishing among four classes of innovations: policy change innovations; multiple component innovations; multiple user innovations; and mixed type innovations.