Rates of Adoption by Independent Financial Agencies (IFAs): The New Regulatory Regime

The study of the acceptance of change and attempts to measurethe adoption process are, as this paper demonstrates, subjectiveand wrought with dificulties.' Whether change comes in theform of a changing organisational culture, fashion or a changein the regulatory system, similar problems emerge whenattempting to analyse the diffusion of the new idea, and theacceptance of the innovation by the potential adopteed. Anattempt will be made to analyse the change adoption process inthe regulation of retail personal jinancial services and itsmeasurement over a period of time utilising statisticaltechniques and a model adopted from the study of consumernew-product marketing. Although this process research isdefined as 'a type of data gathering and analysis that seeks todetermine the time-ordered sequence of a set of events' accountwill also be taken of the contextual framework.' The analysis will try to ascertain whether the attitude of Independent FinancialAdvisers to the change in regulation of retail personal financialservices is a reaction of a temporary nature or whether itconstitutes a more permanent reaction which will break thesequential nature of the adoption process.