Urban hierarchy and spatial diffusion over the innovation life cycle

Area of Science:

• Spatial analysis
• Sociology
• Network science

Background:

• Innovations spread geographically, often following urban hierarchies.
• Identifying the role of distance in hierarchical diffusion was previously limited by data availability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interplay between urban hierarchy and geographical distance in the spatial diffusion of innovations.
• To disentangle and quantify the influence of these factors over the lifecycle of a social media platform.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing spatial patterns of user invitations on a social media platform.
• Employing a regression framework to estimate yearly invitation flows between towns.
• Analyzing diffusion dynamics across the platform's entire lifecycle.

Main Results:

• Hierarchical diffusion initially dominates large towns but expands to all settlement sizes mid-lifecycle.
• Geographical distance's influence intensifies mid-lifecycle but significantly weakens in later diffusion stages.
• Co-evolution of hierarchical and distance-based diffusion observed over time.

Conclusions:

• Urban hierarchy is a dominant factor in spatial diffusion, particularly in early adoption phases.
• Distance plays a complex, evolving role, becoming less significant as diffusion matures.
• Findings inform local-scale innovation adoption predictions and understanding of network growth.