Difuze inovace na příkladu řetězce McDonald’s v ČR a na Slovensku
Difussion of Innovation: Example of McDonald’s Chain Store in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Summary/Abstract: According to E. M. Rogers (2003), diffusion is a process in which an innovation or a phenomenon is transferred via certain channels among individuals or social groups in time and space; an innovation is a thought which can be considered new. New phenomena, objects, thoughts, ways of behaviour, illnesses, information, news, etc. are all spread, which brings about a multi-spectral possibility for perspective and an interdisciplinary approach. Other scientific disciplines including rural sociology, general sociology, economics or human geography have been interested in innovation diffusion - in the past a domain of early sociology explaining some forms of human behaviour. T. Hägerstrand (1967), the pioneer of the theory of innovation diffusion in geography, adds a spatial aspect to the diffusion process and examines the relation of the spreading of innovation with spatial distance. A spatial localization of various shopping places has a diffusion character; time-related phases of the process take place very fast if no significant barriers to innovation are present. Dynamization and expansion in principle grow into the saturation phase of space and gaps at the market; business strategy is important as well. The aim of the article is to analyze and draw general conclusions about the phenomenon of McDonald’s in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which has in time and space also the character of a diffusion process; to point out the similarities and differences in the course of the diffusion process in both countries and to think about the near future.

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