  Diffusion channels are critical to determining the adoption scale which leads
to the ultimate impact of an innovation. The aim of this study is to develop an
integrative understanding of the impact of two diffusion channels (i.e.,
broadcasting vs virality) on innovation adoption. Using citations of a series
of classic algorithms and the time series of co-authorship as the footprints of
their diffusion trajectories, we propose a novel method to analyze the
intertwining relationships between broadcasting and virality in the innovation
diffusion process. Our findings show that broadcasting and virality have
similar diffusion power, but play different roles across diffusion stages.
Broadcasting is more powerful in the early stages but may be gradually caught
up or even surpassed by virality in the later period. Meanwhile, diffusion
speed in virality is significantly faster than broadcasting and members from
virality channels tend to adopt the same innovation repetitively.
