Topic
Frugal innovation
About: Frugal innovation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 472 publications have been published within this topic receiving 9290 citations.
Papers
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01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose that the "lead market" theory can explain the attractiveness of India for frugal solutions to problems faced in day-to-day life, and that frugality has been long regarded as a virtuous social value in India and the socio-cultural context of the country provides a fertile environment for the acceptance of Frugal products and services on both demand and supply sides.
Abstract: In recent years a phenomenon called “frugal innovation” has increasingly gained traction in the scholarly discourse; and as research reveals, it is often brought in connection with India. Apparently, India has quietly acquired the role of a pioneer for innovations that aim at combining affordability with excellence, cutting across sectoral boundaries. But what is it that makes India a forerunner for an innovation paradigm with increasing global relevance? In this paper, I propose that the “lead market” theory can explain to a quite good extent the attractiveness of India for frugal solutions. On one hand, there are concrete economic factors that give rise to resource-efficient and affordable solutions to problems faced in day-to-day life. On the other hand, frugality has been long regarded as a virtuous social value in India and the socio-cultural context of the country provides a fertile environment for the acceptance of frugal products and services on both demand and supply sides.
14 citations
01 Jun 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the challenges faced by private universities from the practitioners' points of view and offer a practical solution to address the issues of everchanging business environments and to deliver value propositions.
Abstract: Many private higher educational institutions (PHEI) are facing poor profitability, increased short term debts with under-resourced cash flow and insufficient funds that could lead to financial distress. To address the issues of ever-changing business environments and to deliver value propositions, PHEI should focus on their intangible assets to increase their capabilities to achieve frugal open innovation. The objective of this paper is to investigate the challenges faced by private universities from the practitioners’ points of view and offer a practical solution. This paper also attempts to identify whether there is a need for any changes in business model or operations required by private universities to sustain their competitive advantage in the current environment. This study is exploratory in nature due to scarcity of past literature on frugal open innovation in PHEI context. Interviews were conducted with experienced practitioners to elicit their experience managing challenges in PHEI. As a result, this paper sheds light on the ability of PHEI to formalize, capture, and leverage its intangible assets rather than only investing and managing tangible assets in order to achieve frugal open innovation. Frugal open innovation is the enabler for PHEI to focus on core functions, create closer integration with industry, local and international communities and promote greater efficiency in operations. This paper is novel because it seeks to contribute to the current debate in the literature, positioning frugal open innovation (FOI) within the sphere of intellectual capital research, through exploring the effect of intellectual capital on frugal innovation is mediated through the information technology capability. The result indicates that sales and operating planning (S&OP) can be panacea for the five main challenges faced by PHEI includes structural challenges, operational challenges, financial challenges, social challenges and technological challenges. We conclude that there is a role for intellectual capital to achieve FOI by influencing IT capabilities, thus warrants more research to fill this research gap.
14 citations
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a case study which suggests that better collaboration with African partners in order to supply goods to the bottom of the pyramid in a profitable way is of great importance, and consider whether, by addressing frugal innovation for Africa, product innovations brought into Africa by foreign parties can increasingly become influenced and transformed a priori by Africans.
Abstract: Western-based multinational enterprises (MNEs) have played a major role in the introduction and marketing of new products and services in Africa?s consumer markets. Frugal innovations are the result of the recent ambitions of mostly MNEs to design and sell products for and to consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). This chapter presents a case study which suggests that better collaboration with African partners in order to supply goods to the BoP in a profitable way is of great importance. The OMO sachets were a success from a sales perspective and turnover increased greatly over figures from the early 1990s due to the introduction of the more affordable economy-sized sachets. Finally, the chapter considers whether, by addressing frugal innovation for Africa, product innovations brought into Africa by foreign parties can increasingly become influenced and transformed a priori by Africans, before the products have entered the African market. Keywords: Africa; Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP); frugal innovation; OMO sachets; Western-based multinational enterprises (MNEs)
14 citations
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of frugal innovation and its integration with traditional IT-enabled innovation approaches is discussed, and the potential integration of Frugal IT innovation with traditional innovation is explored.
Abstract: Innovation programs in developed economies are centered on resource richness and abundance. As firms seek newer innovation paradigms to sustain competitive advantage, we suggest the use of “frugal innovation”, which originates in emerging economies and is rooted in low cost approaches, constrained resources, and flexible improvisation. Frugal innovation principles when viewed from the theoretical lens of IT capability, RBV, and other related literature, can provide a rich foundation for frugal IT innovation research. In this exploratory paper, we explain the concept of frugal innovation and its position within a number of existing innovation paradigms. This is a significant contribution considering the number of emerging innovation concepts. We also demonstrate the potential integration of frugal innovation principles with traditional IT-enabled innovation approaches – a concept we call “frugal IT innovation”. We then explore potential “frugal IT capabilities” that may enable frugal IT innovation and finally provide propositions to guide future research.
14 citations
TL;DR: A novel approach that can be applied for developing frugal innovations, which also appears to be suitable for developing radical innovations is proposed, which is less complex and easier to implement than existing approaches that are deliberately used for developing radicals.
Abstract: Despite the interest in frugal innovation, both in research and in business practice, little is known about methods, approaches, or procedures that specifically support the systematic development of frugal innovations. In this article, we propose a novel approach that can be applied for developing frugal innovations, which also appears to be suitable for developing radical innovations. We present one in-depth case study that shows how the approach can be applied for successful concept development of a frugal and even radical innovation. The study follows an exploratory action research method conducted in a U.S. engineering company over 19 months. The action research resulted in a novel approach that we call objective–conflict–resolution (OCR). Applying this approach in the company led to the development of a frugal innovation—for which a patent application was submitted—that is significantly less expensive, requires fewer resources, and offers greater ease-of-use than previous solutions. The OCR approach has two main advantages over existing approaches. It can be applied for developing frugal and radical innovations when established approaches result in rather incremental solutions (such as value engineering) and is less complex and easier to implement than existing approaches that are deliberately used for developing radical solutions (such as TRIZ).
14 citations