This chapter sets the scene for the Handbook on Frugal Innovation. First, it describes the origins of the concept of frugal innovation and its emergence as an academic field of interest. Then, main drivers behind frugal innovation are explored. From the scholarly discussion on frugal innovation major themes are distilled that inform the structure and contents of the Handbook. The final part of the chapter presents the structure of the Handbook and the chapters of the Handbook are briefly introduced.@en

Purpose: Advance the state-of-the-art on how frugal innovation links to sustainability outcomes and based on content analysis of empirical publications in the field of frugal innovation, analyzing when and how FI is connected with social, environmental and economic outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative content analysis on empirical papers published on frugal innovation, using data visualization techniques to disclose relationships among the constructs adopted. Materials were collected following a step-wise methodology. In total, 130 articles were identified, read in depth and coded according to five main categories: context; development; implementation, adoption, diffusion; characteristics; and impacts. Findings: The potential of frugal innovation to drive sustainability outcomes is influenced by the type of actors developing the innovation, regarding their organizational form (large firms, small firms, non-firm actors), their geographical origin (foreign or local) or motivations (mostly profit-motivated or socially-oriented). Collaboration plays a key role along the various stages of the frugal innovation cycle and is thus relevant for its potential to drive sustainability outcomes. The results reaffirm the need for greater attention to where and when sustainability-enhancing outcomes of frugal innovation are more likely to occur. Originality/value: This study provides a qualitative study based on content analysis of empirical studies to explore the associations between frugal innovations and improved economic, environmental and social sustainability outcomes. The key novelty of this study lies in the systematic coding of each paper regarding the features of the innovation, the innovators, and the outcomes achieved. This allows taking stock of the evidence emerging in such a scattered literature, quantifying the extent to which insights take place in the empirical literature, looking for correlations, and highlight research gaps to understand to what extent frugal innovation can contribute to sustainable development.@en

Within wider debates on sustainability and digitalisation, frugal innovation (FI) scholars largely assume that digital technologies are important for FI in realising more sustainable outcomes. However, very few studies interrogate this causality. To tackle this challenge, we connect FI with digitalisation. Thereto, we conceptualise digital technologies as and within FIs and discuss three frugality dimensions to analyse three empirical case studies of digitally-enabled FIs. We use these cases to introduce new nuances on how digitalisation affects frugality and scaling. Our results unveil that digitalisation can increase frugality by enabling more accessible and affordable solutions through new flexible funding schemes and pay-as-you-go models. However, our evidence also implies decreasing frugality by an increase in end-user costs and digital exclusion. Likewise, increasing frugality through complexity reduction seems mainly to benefit intermediaries and frugal innovators themselves, whereas benefits of digitalisation in terms of complexity reduction for end-users seem to be limited. Digitalisation can even increase complexity for end-users, thus suggesting decreasing frugality. Finally, just like with non-digital innovations, scaling of digitally enabled innovations is dependent on the quality of logistical infrastructure and local adaptation practices. Moreover, scaling of digitally-enabled innovations is limited to users in regions with a proper ICT infrastructure.@en

This paper investigates how a multinational enterprise (MNE) engages in frugal business model innovation to find the optimal balance between value creation and value capture in resource-constrained contexts in sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative content analysis, we analyse the case of Community Life Centres (CLC), a primary healthcare innovation developed by Royal Philips N.V., a multinational technology organisation headquartered in The Netherlands. Our findings show that an MNE can innovate by developing multiple iterations of the same business model—customising it to different geographical markets. Some aspects of the business model remain static, while others are dynamic. In this regard, the innovation process in a resource-constrained service sector is pegged on the financing model, and target markets are adjusted based on financial opportunities available, while the value proposition and costing mechanisms remain relatively static. This paper contributes new insights to the frugal innovation and business model innovation literature.@en

This pioneering Handbook details the origins of the concept of frugal innovation, its emergence as an academic field of interest, and the driving forces behind it. It presents new empirical evidence and critical perspectives on what frugal innovation entails, from a range of disciplines including science and engineering, humanities, and the social sciences.@en

This pioneering Handbook details the origins of the concept of frugal innovation, its emergence as an academic field of interest, and the driving forces behind it. It presents new empirical evidence and critical perspectives on what frugal innovation entails, from a range of disciplines including science and engineering, humanities, and the social sciences.@en

The lack of appropriate and affordable medical devices to serve the needs of developing countries is a global health concern; a need felt even more acutely during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, the growing medical device manufacturing sector in South Africa has drawn policy attention, with some studies highlighting its significant potential to contribute to South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030. The prompt deployment of funding and home-grown technologies by the South African government during the pandemic to address medical device and diagnostics shortage through local manufacturing reaffirms the country’s capabilities. This study explores firm-level innovation processes through a fresh lens. It adapts the heuristics of an ‘institutional triad’ to highlight the institutions, interactions, and tensions between the three stages of innovation – generation, production, and diffusion – which are influenced by different policy domains. Further, it explores the ways in which the harmonisation of policies can enable South Africa’s medical device manufacturing sector to reconcile the twin objectives of industrial growth and social development, including lowering its own healthcare cost. Empirical evidence from three case studies demonstrates that, despite facing many constraints and challenges to innovate, some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in medical device manufacturing in South Africa have high levels of innovation capabilities and have successfully brought various frugal innovations to market. Frugal innovations in this study are fundamentally new products – they are not adaptations or stripped-down versions of products initially developed for Western markets. The evidence suggests varying levels of involvement of the state in the three case studies presented. However, much more proactive support, particularly to innovative SMEs, would be needed to enable more inclusive technological change where both economic and social goals can simultaneously be achieved. @en

The platform economy largely focuses on consumer platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, whereas business-to-business platforms receive less attention.1 This article2 discusses Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan-Dutch agro-tech platform that aims to support small farmers (‘smallholders’) in rural Africa to set up commercial business through a bundled input loan that they can use to obtain agricultural inputs. These smallholders are normally unattractive as customers due to their small size and high-risk profiles (e.g., limited chance of repaying loans). Apollo tries to support smallholders with an innovative platform-based business model. @en