The study examined what factors determine the use of educational innovations by teachers in higher education. Three sort of factors were compared: teachers' motivation for the enhancement of education, their contact with or exposure to dissemination of educational innovations and institutional factors, that is, support provided by higher education institutions. Further, teachers were classified regarding their use of educational innovations. The study used survey data collected among academic staff at public Norwegian higher education institutions. Results of the multinominal logistic regression models showed that intrinsic motivation was an important factor for teachers' innovation behaviour in this context. Dissemination and institutional factors exerted little or no significant impact. The assumptions currently underlying research on educational innovations and the design of national and institutional support programmes are discussed against the background of these results.