This chapter provides a conceptual framework for integrating the array ofvariables defined in diffusion research to explicate their influence on anactor's decision to adopt an innovation. The framework groups thevariables into three major components. The first component includescharacteristics of the innovation itself, within which two sets of variablesare defined concerning public versus private consequences and benefits versuscosts of adoption. A second component involves the characteristics ofinnovators (actors) that influence the probability of adoption of aninnovation. Within this component six sets of variables concern societal entityof innovators (either people, organizations, states, etc.), familiarity withthe innovation, status characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics, positionin social networks, and personal qualities. The third component involvescharacteristics of the environmental context that modulate diffusion viastructural characteristics of the modern world. These latter characteristicsincorporate four sets of variables: geographical settings, societal culture,political conditions, and global uniformity. The concluding analysis highlightsthe need in diffusion research to incorporate more fully (a) theinteractive character of diffusion variables, (b) the gating function ofdiffusion variables, and (c) effects of an actor's characteristicson the temporal rate of diffusion.