How Can ‘Frugal Innovation’ Be Conceptualized?

Abstract

Although the concept of frugal innovation is gaining popularity in both practitioner and academic discourse, there is no theoretically embedded definition and there exist few if any conceptual models to base future research on. We fulfil both gaps by analyzing the concept of ‘frugality’ and ‘innovation’ separately first and then jointly around two perspectives – historical and current – together which reveal a theoretically embedded definition and conceptual models of ‘frugal innovation’. We use a historical perspective to show that while the terminology is new, the core idea behind frugal innovation is not new. Subsequently however through a current perspective we show how it has gained renewed interest in both emerging countries as well as developed ones. We offer suggestions for future research along these conceptual models and layout implications to research and practice.

Keywords: innovation, resource scarcity, institutional voids, constraints, affordability, frugal, cost, emerging markets