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Frugal innovation aims to attain significantly cheaper solutions on the market. The literature points out a lack of studies addressing frugal innovation from a process-oriented (ex-ante) perspective, as well as how to structure and leverage the frugal product development process. This paper explores how lean principles and fundamentals, and more particularly lean product development (LPD) can help fill this gap. The incidence of different types of waste has been observed throughout the new product development (NPD) process, and their mitigation could certainly leverage frugal innovation from the process perspective. However, to operationalize waste mitigation, an evaluation of how different types of waste are related to the various existing LPD practices is necessary. We accordingly build a relationship matrix between LPD practices and waste mitigation throughout the NPD process, based on a literature review encompassing 310 studies. By correlating LPD practices and waste, this paper proposes and discusses a conceptual model that brings insights to understanding how LPD can drive frugal innovations from an ex-ante perspective. The contributions of this paper are the categorization and classification of waste within NPD; the assessment and classification of the lean practices most studied in the literature; the association of the categories of waste with the corresponding lean practices; and the discussion of the possible contribution of LPD literature to leverage frugal innovation from a process-oriented perspective.

Recognising the greater variety and sophistication of product innovation strategies to target existing and previously untapped markets, the author presents an extended version of the Ansoff product-market expansion grid that highlights the different approaches for developed world and emerging markets. The proposed model consists of seven distinct categories of growth options and depicts alternative strategic possibilities within each category, where appropriate. Categories that are new to the matrix include resource-constrained innovation, necessity innovation and reverse innovation. Necessity innovation is a new concept and a special case of user-innovation, defined as innovation by resource-constrained consumers in emerging markets to serve their own unmet needs. Utilising recent industry examples from a variety of media, the author demonstrates the traits of each strategic approach to grow revenue streams through product-market innovation.

In recent years, there has been a shift in the epicenter of innovation from developed to emerging markets. Western multinationals are increasingly harnessing the potential of emerging markets by setting up local subsidiaries and developing frugal and reverse innovations. This study is an attempt to explore this shift and investigate the process of development of these innovations using a case study analysis approach. The study analyses the case of a technology-based Danish multinational (MNC) and explores how frugal innovations in India and China are developed. Based on nine interviews with leading R&D experts, the results provide evidence for the ongoing innovation shift and offer insights into the development of frugal products in local R&D projects. Growing traction towards reverse innovation, where MNCs are developing frugal products for global markets is also an important finding.

Frugal innovations enable companies to access new markets because of some specific characteristics. Typically, they focus on existing solutions as a blueprint, changing parts of their functionality while reducing the costs. Many companies are faced with the question how to find ideas for such frugal innovations. For this purpose, we introduce a method for the identification of frugal invention candidates and their qualification as frugal patents. We provide a general outline of a process and apply it to the medical engineering technology. By use of semantic analysis, we shed light on the moderating role of frugal attributes to qualify a frugal invention candidate as a frugal patent. The application produces a comprehensive set of frugal patents. Our approach deepens the understanding of frugality by providing an appropriate assessment based on a newly developed frugal thesaurus. Managers will have the option to adapt our method to their particular fields of experience.

Concerns about sustainability challenges are growing. Companies are under pressure to rethink existing innovation paradigms. In this context, research interest in the resource-constrained innovation concept, frugal innovation, has increased. In this paper, we examine the impact of frugal innovation on the economic, social, and ecological sustainability dimensions by conducting a systematic literature review of 44 papers. We find that frugal innovation is a promising approach to promote sustainable development from an economic perspective and a social perspective. Nevertheless, positive and negative effects exist in all three dimensions. Thus, a positive relationship is not inherent but must be proactively formed. External factors can influence the impact of frugal innovation on sustainability. For future research we recommend (1) establishing a unified understanding of frugal innovation through a clear definition, (2) broadening the research focus to a global perspective, (3) assessing the impact of frugal innovation along the entire product life cycle, and (4) investigating characteristics that make frugal innovation sustainable.

Affordable innovations, which serve consumers with a low willingness or ability to pay, are a means to address grand challenges while also generating economic value. However, less is known about how managers’ and decision makers’ individual-level preferences and attitudes for or against affordable innovation hinder their development. Hence, in addition to identifying and conceptualising the affordable innovation rejection (AIR) attitudes of decision makers as a major obstacle, this study proposes a scale to measure them. Specifically, with a series of qualitative and quantitative studies, this research develops and validates a parsimonious psychometric scale that can measure decision makers’ AIR attitudes. The resulting six-item scale is based on a tripartite AIR conceptualisation, which proves valid in terms of convergent, discriminant, experimental, nomological, predictive, and test–retest reliability. The proposed research agenda in turn details some possible applications of this scale.

Historically, leveraging the right resources has been deemed critical for successful product innovation. However, recent findings reveal that some entrepreneurs and ventures, despite facing resource constraints, can still develop innovative products. This intriguing phenomenon has captured the attention of scholars, resulting in an increasing number of empirical work examining various aspects of resource-constrained product innovation. To consolidate the dispersed knowledge generated by these studies and establish a solid foundation for evidence-based entrepreneurship and management, we conducted a comprehensive review of 53 articles. Through an evidence-based analysis, we construct a framework that encompasses the who-why-how-where-when-what of the phenomenon. This framework delineates the scope of the phenomenon and sheds light on the enabling antecedents and processes undertaken by the actors, thus serving as a foundation for both research and practice. Moreover, we identified significant research gaps on the topic and provided suggestions for future research to focus on underexplored concepts and relationships within the framework.

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.

Background: Conventional microscopes and exoscopes currently play pivotal roles in the microsurgery or training for male infertility. However, they are expensive and unaffordable in low-resource settings, which limits training or application of advanced methods.

Objectives: To introduce a new, low-cost exoscope system and to determine whether it is an effective frugal innovation.

Methods: Using animal models, we evaluated a new frugal exoscope system named DKTA in experimental microsurgery of vas deferens repair. Five experts in male infertility surgery undertook an anonymous survey to elucidate their experience with DKTA system use. Three crucial criteria (i.e., substantial cost reduction, concentration on core functionalities, and optimized performance level) were evaluated to determine whether the DKTA is effective as frugal innovation. The survey used a 5-point Likert scale of responses to eight statements investigating surgical, ergonomic, and educational aspects.

Results: The DKTA system, including an optical microscope and ultra-high-definition (UHD) camera (4K), was an exoscope placed between 20 and 40 cm from the surgical field. It was held in position with a camera support arm on casters and connected to a 65-in. smart TV. DKTA system met the three crucial criteria of frugal innovation. Five male infertility microsurgeons reported positive evaluations based on modal scores of the DKTA system when performing experimental vasovasostomy.

Conclusions: DKTA system, a frugal innovation, has a valuable contribution to the training program and performance of male infertility microsurgery in low-resource settings.

Frugal innovation has become necessary while considering the mindset of addressing the emerging issues of organizational evolution under resource constraints. An innovation is successful when it is commercialized, enabling an organization to evolve into consecutive life cycles. Innovators who are frugal at the grassroots level are individuals or groups who use local resources to solve problems and find new solutions. This perspective sees innovation as a result of the interaction between human creativity and frugality. A bricolage innovation process is one where resources are combined to solve new problems as they arise. This process could be a new perspective driven by the need to solve problems rather than a consumption focus. It starts with the problem itself rather than being planned from the outset. The Prime Minister of India called on the nation on May 12, 2020 to become more self-sufficient to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The most prevalent slogan during the pandemic has been “Vocal for Local,” meaning that people should value and buy local products. The Prime Minister stated, “The free India mindset should be ‘voice for local.’ We should value our local products; if we don’t, our products get discouraged and denied the opportunity to grow. An extension of this motto is ‘local for global,’ meaning Indian products should have worldwide appeal and reach.” Thus, this approach of focusing on strengthening skill sets rather than heavy investment in land, capital, and human resources will help to transverse the organizational life cycle.