Much effort goes into building markets as a tool for economic and social development, often overlooking that in too many places social exclusion and poverty prevent many, especially women, from participating in and accessing markets. Building on data from rural Bangladesh and analyzing the work of a prominent intermediary organization, we uncover institutional voids as the source of market exclusion and identify two sets of activities – redefining market architecture and legitimating new actors – as critical for building ‘inclusive' markets. We expose voids as ‘analytical spaces' and illustrate how they result from conflict and contradiction among institutional ‘bits and pieces' from local political, community, and religious spheres. Our findings put forward a perspective on market building that highlights the ‘on the ground' dynamics and attends to the ‘institutions at play', to their consequences, and to a more diverse set of ‘inhabitants' of institutions.

Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids

The digital transformation of manufacturing firms, in addition to making operations more efficient, offers important opportunities both to promote the transition to a circular economy and to experiment with new techniques for designing smarter and greener products. This study integrates Industry 4.0 technologies, smart data, Life Cycle Assessment methodology, and material microstructural analysis techniques to develop and apply a circular eco-design model that has been implemented in the Italian ceramic tile manufacturing industry. The model has been initially adopted in a simulation environment to define five different scenarios of raw material supply, alternative to the current production one. The scenarios were then validated operationally at laboratory scale and in a pilot environment, demonstrating that a proper selection of raw material transport systems significantly improves the environmental performance of the ceramic product. Both the results of the laboratory tests and of the pre-industrial experiments have demonstrated the technological feasibility of the solutions identified with circular eco-design, enabling the re-engineering of the ceramic product as the fifth of the 6Rs of the circular economy.

Industry 4.0 and Smart Data as Enablers of the Circular Economy in Manufacturing: Product Re-Engineering with Circular Eco-Design

Organizations ensure responsible innovation through collaborative management. Asian organizations adopt resource-constrained innovation, being one form of frugal innovation, and responsible innovation. Also, Asian organizations are influenced by culture, such as jugaad, on developing innovation capability. Few research studies have focused on the antecedents and consequences of resource-constrained innovation and responsible innovation from Asian organizations’ capability and culture perspective. With this background, the purpose of this study is to determine the antecedents and consequences of frugal innovation and responsible innovation of Asian organizations. With consideration of the extant literature and theories such as dynamic capability view and neo-institutional theory, a conceptual model has been developed. The conceptual model has been validated using partial least squares structural equation modeling technique with the help of survey data collected from Asian countries. The research study finds that knowledge management capability, bricolage capability, and collaborative capability impact organizations’ resource-constrained innovation and responsible innovation. Also, the study finds that jugaad culture has a significant impact on innovation and organization performance.

Antecedents and consequence of frugal and responsible innovation in Asia: through the lens of organization capabilities and culture

Sustainable development in the construction industry: The role of frugal innovation

Most entrepreneurship studies have an urban focus, and it is studied mainly from the perspective of opportunity exploitation. Rural entrepreneurship presents different characteristics, and it requires analysis from a resource-based view since this kind of entrepreneurial behavior takes place in rural communities under resource constraints. The sustainable livelihood perspective represents a relevant framework in rural entrepreneurship, considering resources and capacities to face poverty in rural areas. Therefore, this study presents a literature review to identify current and emerging issues in rural entrepreneurship from a sustainable livelihood framework. The literature review identifies that the main concepts involved in rural entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihood are women, poverty alleviation, youth, social entrepreneurship, and institutions. Likewise, social capital and human capital prevail as the most relevant capitals in the analyzed documents. The study offers research opportunities in emerging issues related to social entrepreneurship, governance and institutions, livelihood growth, and eco-entrepreneurship for extending the boundaries of rural entrepreneurship from the sustainable livelihood framework.

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Rural Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Current and Emerging Issues from the Sustainable Livelihood Framework

Purpose: This study aims to focus on implementing frugal innovation and its principles by social entrepreneurs to face the challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research paper discusses the case of an Indian social entrepreneur who works for menstrual health and hygiene of unprivileged and rural women in India. The social entrepreneur’s constant endeavor is to create an ecosystem to ensure rural women’s economic and social upliftment through financial inclusion and livelihood training. When faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the social entrepreneur re-purposed the manufacturing process to produce masks that were the need of the hour. Design/methodology/approach: The research paper is qualitative and follows an inductive case study approach. The underlying principles of frugal innovation are established through content analysis of the social entrepreneur’s interviews and her team members. Findings: The study discusses how adversity can be an opportunity for social entrepreneurs by implementing frugal innovation principles, i.e. re-use, re-purpose, re-combine and rapidity, in times of crisis. Research limitations/implications: One of the major limitations of this study is that it is based on a single case study, as, in the current scenario, this case appeared to be the most suitable one. There is no way to generalize the assumptions of this model. Researchers will have to study the phenomena of frugal innovation in adversity across multiple cases in the future. Also, the study is based on a single emerging economy, i.e. India. Further research may be carried out with such cases from other countries. Practical implications: The proposition of this research paper will help new and established social entrepreneurs understand that the four principles of frugal innovation and their practical application by a social entrepreneur. This will act as a guiding light for the present and future entrepreneurs regarding how one can respond to a crisis. This will also help advance our understanding of the distinct ways in which social entrepreneurs’ activities can help society in times of crisis. The findings of this research paper provide timely implications for social entrepreneurs. To respond efficiently to various crises, it is important to consider its effect on social entrepreneurship. Social implications: The research paper shows that the social enterprise has implemented frugal innovation principles to manufacture the COVID-19 protection items supplied through existing supply chain networks. Also, a social entrepreneur is not intimidated by the sudden changes in the business environment;instead, they look at the situation as an opportunity to do something new. They are always willing to take the risk to innovate a solution that will address people’s problems. frugal innovation, due to its highly collaborative nature and its ability to make the most from limited resources, is the only way social entrepreneurs can create an inclusive, secure and sustainable future. Originality/value: There are several challenges in social entrepreneurship, especially in emerging economies like India. During the pandemic, availability of resources was the major challenge, due to which social entrepreneurs had to find solutions through frugal innovation. This paper provides the practical application of the four principles of frugal innovation implemented by a social enterprise to manufacture and supply Covid protection items. It also presents the practical and managerial implications of the principles of frugal innovation by social entrepreneurs in low resource settings. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Oly Mishra

Papers

Principles of frugal innovation and its application by social entrepreneurs in times of adversity: an inductive single-case approach