Abstract
Frugal innovation is emerging as a growing trend in both the developing and developed parts of the world. In developing countries, such cost-effective and accessible frugal innovations are necessary to overcome extreme conditions and existing resource constraints. In developed countries, however, companies are engaging in frugal innovations due to the growing awareness of eco-friendly and sustainable consumption (Kroll, Gabriel, Braun, & Engasser, 2017). Hence, companies are increasingly adopting new technologies to get on the wave of frugal innovation and are successfully developing more accessible and resourceful solutions (Weill & Woerner, 2013). Leading technologies such as mobile services, cloud technologies, 3D printing, and machine learning, are consistently being used to develop frugal innovations on a global scale. Recent literature has emphasised the role of new technologies as enablers of frugal innovation. However, insight on such innovations is limited (Ahuja & Chan, 2014; Agarwal & Brem 2017b). Prior research has rather focused on exploring the unique conditions of emerging markets as well as understanding the needs of bottom-of-the-pyramid customer segments (Radjou & Prabhu, 2016). Thus, the question of how new technologies can be utilised to address specific requirements of resource-constrained customers is still unanswered. Therefore, this chapter investigates multiple cases of technology-enabled frugal innovation across the globe. The aim is to understand how the new technologies are being used to develop frugal innovations that meet the needs of resource-constrained customers. For this purpose, six cases of technology-enabled frugal innovations from different industries are investigated.
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