Reverse Innovation in Retrospect and Prospect: Quo Vadis?

Abstract

Reverse innovation (RI) is considered as an innovation originally designed and developed for low-income customers living in severely resource-constrained environments in emerging and developing countries’ markets, with the potential to be diffused in developed markets. After more than a decade of academic studies, the potential role of RI in creating higher impact global innovations has progressively advanced. With the upsurge in research on RI, there is a need for scholars and business practitioners to retrospectively reflect on existing/current research state and prospect for future research directions. In this article, we examine the existing conceptualization and research landscape of RI to further identify and map future research directions. First, through a bibliometric review of a decade of research (2009–2019), we provide insights into the evolution of research topics in the field of RI including the identification of main research streams, influential scholars and works, important scholarly associations, and collaborative networks. Second, we combine these bibliometric findings with structural hole theory, weak ties, and social network analysis to derive future research lines on RI.