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Emerging markets are at the core of developing frugal innovations that create value in society. This research paper's overall purpose is to showcase how the emerging market of Zimbabwe has created frugal products through the company Econet Wireless Limited; that have brought a significant turnaround in the economy and, in doing so, have positively impacted the society. Additionally, the research problems of the company’s precise frugal innovations, how they create social value, and to what extent were investigated. The case study method was utilized, and data was collected using existing and or secondary data. Of the frugal innovations by Econet Wireless Limited, Ecocash, a mobile money service, provided a financial system for the unbanked and exbanked solving the money or coin shortage problem. Econet Solar, Econet’s brand for solar products, presented an alternative source to the country's lack of electricity. However, beneficial both products were discovered to have shortcomings that can be improved upon or corrected.
Frugality has become a prerequisite for success in a low-resource environment, a reality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. When it comes to consumer needs, the priorities affordability and functionality are increasingly coming into focus. This study examines how frugal products are performing in developed markets, whether they meet consumer needs, and ultimately if there is a demand for these products.
The aim of this paper is to assess the status of Frugal Innovation (FI) in developed markets, using Germany as an example, and thus consumer behavior, in order to better evaluate the current status and related potentials based on this. The link between FI and environmental and social sustainability can be traced back to and limited to the minimal use of resources. Against the backdrop of the current economic and political situation, these factors represent one of the most significant competitive advantages of today.
This multi-method experiment helps to understand the consumer behavior towards frugal products as well as the opinions and attitude towards it. As a result, it can be said that there is interest in innovation in general as well as FI. The respective buying decisions were balanced, what means that frugal products do not necessarily outperform non-frugal ones, but they are in strong competition. It can be concluded that there will be an increasing demand for frugal products in developed markets such as Germany, especially for certain product categories.
The relation between Frugal Innovation and Sustainability is a widely discussed topic in current academic literature. To assess the correlation between these two concepts, a sample of the most frequently mentioned Frugal Innovations was selected. The criteria to evaluate the sustainability potential for each of these cases was built upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a global reference indicator. Frugal Innovations among the banking, transport, energy, ICT, water, appliances and healthcare sectors were evaluated. The results suggested a positive contribution and impact of Frugal Innovations towards economic, social and environmental development.
The rapid pace of change is posing a series of challenges both in industrialized and in emerging economies. Throughout history, one important measure to deal with change was to further develop technology, to find the right solution, to improve the current standard, in one word: to innovate. Over the past decades, different types of innovation have emerged. One fairly recent form is frugal innovation. The principle of frugal innovation is to build a strategic fit between affordability, quality and sustainability with the aim to create a greater value for customers while using fewer resources as capital, time or material. In view of contemporary developments like globalization, climate change, or increasing poverty which create issues across countries, industries and social classes, frugal innovation can offer solutions. Existing literature mainly reports about frugal innovation as an option to serve consumers from low income markets in developing countries. However, the concept might be already or might become in future equally crucial for industrialized economies. The purpose of this research is to investigate the future development of frugal innovation in industrialized economies. A critical question in this paper is to identify how much innovation concepts in industrialized economies differ from innovation concepts in emerging countries and in the following, to assess to what extend the frugal innovation concept would imply a reorientation for industrialized economies. The results indicate that innovators in industrialized economies still follow the typical “higher, faster, further strategy” and that different mind-sets might be necessary to introduce a frugal innovation approach. Moreover, the results show that frugal innovation offers a unique combination of principles that respond to a very high degree to present consumer, market or eco-political trends. A limitation of this paper is that in industrialized countries, hitherto there exist very few examples of frugal innovation concepts. Subsequently, the theoretical and empirical literature, which can be reviewed, is limited.
The notion of frugal innovation or how to do more with less becomes increasingly relevant in a world which faces many severe health care challenges. In general, frugal innovations have the potential to provide low-cost, simple, and valuable solutions to these challenges. Therefore, this research aims to shed light on key success factors and patterns of frugal innovations in the Indian health care sector. For this reason, the research analyzes a sample of nine selected frugal innovations. The frugal innovation examples are examined with respect to their innovation characteristics. Further, the examination of success patterns allows to investigate the potential of reversed innovation in developed countries in order to improve global health. To sum up, the research provides profound insights on the subject of frugal innovations and conclusions on the research questions. Finally, an outlook on future developments in the health care sector and future research are given.