Importance of frugality for sustainable innovations

• Main Author: Simula, Henri
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: HD28 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/8890/; http://www.icois2013.uum.edu.my/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

"Sustainable," "environmentally friendly," "green," "pro-environmental" and "ecological" have often been used interchangeably to describe firms, products and production processes that use less energy, that recycle materials, that reduce waste and pollution and that preserve natural resources.In any event, the demand of sustainable products is increasing globally.Frugal innovation is a new concept that has gained interest among scholar recently.Frugal innovation relates to simplification and lean practices, which are elementary important in resource scarce environments.Frugal innovation can be defined as the practice of developing low cost products in order to create value for consumers.A more colloquial version of this is referred to as Sugaad in the Indian context.The overall purpose of this conceptual paper is to determine the role of these two concepts, based on current literature and case examples that are selected via theoretical sampling.The research problem addressed is why and how technology firms should create sustainable products by applying concepts of frugal innovation.The first part of the paper is an overview of extant literature.The second part introduces a conceptual framework that combines frugal and sustainable innovation. Managerial recommendation and ideas for further research are also presented.