Recently, the innovation management literature has witnessed a rising interest in the so-called frugal innovation. The term was initially discussed in the context of emerging markets, giving non-affluent customers opportunities to consume affordable products and services suited to their needs. However, the meaning of frugal innovation is fuzzy. Further, the increasing appearance of frugal innovation in developed markets challenges earlier definitions that often characterised frugal innovation particularly in the context of emerging markets. So far, it has not been clear what differentiates frugal innovation from other innovation types. Thus, we need criteria that make it possible to determine what frugal innovation is and what is not. In order to determine a clear definition, we choose a multimethod approach, conduct a literature review, and interview 45 managers from companies and researchers from different research institutes. On the basis of the results, we define three criteria for frugal innovation: substantial cost reduction, concentration on core functionalities, and optimised performance level. We contribute to the literature by refining the meaning of frugal innovation. We also enable organisations to better deal with the challenge of developing frugal innovation in both emerging and developed markets.

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What is frugal innovation? Three defining criteria

Business models for sustainable innovation – an empirical analysis of frugal products and services

In this paper, we use the term jugaad to describe the frugal, flexible, and inclusive approach to innovation and entrepreneurship emerging from India. We articulate why this method is appropriate within the Indian context and highlight similarities between jugaad and related types of innovation originating from other emerging (and developed) economies. Next, we identify different types of organizations that engage in jugaad and elucidate their abilities, or lack thereof, to undertake such innovation. Finally, we incorporate the notion of jugaad within current theorizing on innovation and entrepreneurship and outline an agenda for future research on this topic. Overall, we provide insights on a mode of innovating that is increasingly prevalent in India as well as certain economies around the world and take steps towards integrating this concept into the mainstream theory, practice, and policy discourses around innovation and entrepreneurship.

/pdf/innovation-and-entrepreneurship-in-india-understanding-3uvss8752d.pdf

Innovation and entrepreneurship in India: Understanding jugaad

The past two decades have seen a tremendous growth in innovation processes conceived under scarcity conditions with special focus on emerging markets and bottom of the pyramid (BOP) customers. However, evolving literature in this field has unfortunately resulted in a multitude of innovation approaches leading to terminology confusion and fragmented literature. Hence, this study is an attempt to systematically organize and synthesize the research on innovation approaches originated in, for or from emerging markets. An extensive systematic review of the existing literature is carried out to investigate the progress of prior research, and to use the insights to define future research pathways. This review is primarily based on the most frequently used innovation approaches, especially frugal innovation, jugaad, disruptive innovation, Gandhian innovation, catalytic innovation, indigenous innovation, bricolage, blowback innovation, trickle-up innovation, resource-constrained innovation, and BOP innovation. Our analysis finds growing standardization in terminology usage and increasing emphasis on “bottom-up” and structured innovation approaches. De-emphasizing the role of technology transfers and spillovers from the West, the findings exhibit increasing applications of these innovations beyond emerging markets to wider markets. Our research results also shed light on the evolution of the topic and instigate further research explorations in the direction of analyzing the user adoption of these constraint-based innovations and understanding the influence of new technological advancements, such as the Internet, mobile telecommunications, and Web 2.0 on the innovation process, with a special focus on the service industry.

A Systematic Literature Review of Constraint-Based Innovations: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

Frugal innovation: A review and research agenda

This paper gives a comprehensive overview of the commonly used terms jugaad, frugal innovation, frugal engineering, constraint-based innovation, Gandhian innovation, catalytic innovation, grassroots innovation, indigenous innovation, and reverse innovation. Based on that, a conceptual framework is introduced consisting of three core dimensions: sophistication, sustainability, and emerging market orientation. On the basis of these dimensions, analogies and distinctions between the terms are identified and general tendencies are explored such as the increasing importance of sustainability in social and ecological context or the growing interest of developed market firms in approaches from emerging markets. Hence, the presented framework supports further research in new paradigms for research and development (R&D) in developed market firms (DMFs), particularly in relation to emerging markets. This framework enables scholars to compare concepts from developed and emerging markets, to address studies specifically by using consistent terms, and to advance research into the concepts according their characterization.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186%2F2192-5372-3-9.pdf

Research and development from the bottom up - introduction of terminologies for new product development in emerging markets

From research on Western new product development (NPD) practices a rich body of literature has emerged. However, the impact of country specific and cultural influences has not been examined in this context yet. This study is a first attempt to identify differences in NPD practices between Research and Development (R&D) subsidiaries in Germany, China and India within multinational companies. Data has been generated by qualitative interviews with R&D executives in those countries across multiple cases. The study samples strategic, organizational and operational aspects indicates definite differences in process coordination, rewarding systems, market orientation and the average age of NPD teams. Other aspects like strategic targets, the management involvement, etc. show rather slight differences across the countries. Hence, findings suggest that while some aspects are universally applicable across cultural frontiers, Western companies have to understand different expectations regarding NPD in India and China by adjusting practices accordingly.

Organisation of new product development in Asia and Europe: results from Western multinationals R&D sites in Germany, India, and China

Purpose




The approach of Western companies to internationalise their R&D by establishing R&D sites in emerging markets (EMs) has led to a discussion about the role of R&D in home markets and host markets. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the evolution of foreign R&D sites of Western companies in EMs and their role using China as the empirical context.




Design/methodology/approach




The study uses the State Intellectual Property Office database, and investigates about 2,000 patent families of the top 14 Western patent applicants in China.




Findings




The results indicate a gradual shift from an exploitative to an exploratory role of R&D sites in China. The study also shows evident learning effects on Western R&D from local counterparts.




Research limitations/implications




The paper motivates further research of R&D internationalisation approaches within EMs, and explores the changing role of local subsidiaries. While the study is only focussed on China, the applicability of the results is limited in context of other countries, due to cultural, economic and legislative differences.




Practical implications




This study shows the increasing importance of EMs such as China and how these markets, known for imitations and cheap resources, are gradually moving towards innovations and creating new technologies locally.




Originality/value




Based on the patent analysis, this study shows the growing importance of the local R&D subsidiaries of Western multinationals in China.

Pierre Wolfram

Papers

Research and development from the bottom up - introduction of terminologies for new product development in emerging markets

Organisation of new product development in Asia and Europe: results from Western multinationals R&D sites in Germany, India, and China

Reverse technology transfer from the East to the West: Evidence from R&D sites of Western multinationals in China

Differences in New Product Development in Europe and Asia