A conceptual model on the process of innovation diffusion through a historical review of the United States Armed Forces and their bowl games

•Provides a conceptual model on the process of innovation diffusion.•Highlights geography, technology, availability of resources, isomorphism, and degree of seriousness as mediators to the process of innovation diffusion.•Emphasizes the synergy of communication channels, time, and social systems.•Presents geography as both a physical and virtual conception.•Makes use of the historical method and a theoretical sample from 114 football bowl games created by the United States Armed Forces from 1942 through 1967.Due to the interrelated social systems prominent within the organization of sport products and services, the sport industry represents an ideal setting for studying innovation diffusion. This research endeavor extends previous work based on Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovation Theory and uses an historical research approach as a means to understand what happens beyond the initial point of adoption with respect to the total process of innovation diffusion. Within, the authors offer a number of implications for current managers and scholars of sport through applied history. Historical analysis exploits the United States Armed Forces use of American football games from 1942 through 1967 to propose a nine-point conception model on innovation diffusion. In the model, we emphasize the interaction/synergy of: communication systems; time; and social systems. Moreover, the authors discuss the impact of physical and virtual geography and the interplay between degrees of seriousness, availability of resources, isomorphism, and technology across each stage of the process to emphasize their interactions within subsequent stages as to whether the diffusion process continues. Late adopters can extend the diffusion process through re-invention to offer a more complete theoretical model of the total process of innovation diffusion.