Frugal Innovation: origins, evolution and future Perspectives/Inovacao Frugal: origens, evolucao e perspectivas futures/Innovacion Frugal: origenes, evolucion y perspectivas futuras

• Published in: Cadernos EBAPE.BR 2019-10, Vol.17 (4), p.1079
• Main Authors: Koerich, Graziele Ventura, De Lorenzi Cancellier, Everton Luis Pellizzaro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1679-3951; 1679-3951
• DOI: 10.1590/1679-395174424x

Frugal innovation has recently become a relevant topic in social and academic discourse. The real challenge for this new manifestation of innovation is the introduction of something new or different with the use of few resources. Frugal innovations have generally been associated with emerging economies where large consumer groups are at the bottom of the pyramid with unmet needs. However, there is growing evidence that this phenomenon is also becoming relevant in industrialized nations, potentially affecting the long-term competitiveness of domestic enterprises, not only abroad but also locally. Consequently, frugal innovation scholars have begun to investigate attempts to systematize this emerging field of research and promote the development of this debate. This theoretical study presents the origin and evolution of the frugal innovation approach and its current characterization in the literature; discusses future perspectives on the topic; and suggests that future works invest in empirical research, enriching existing debates on frugal innovation, especially from the lens of local economic development, through financial results and economic returns. It also reinforces the need to develop frugal innovation measurement instruments. Keywords: Frugal Innovation. Emerging Markets. Frugality. Innovation. A inovacao frugal tornou-se recentemente um topico relevante no discurso social e academico. O verdadeiro desafio para essa nova manifestacao de inovacao caracteriza-se pela introducao de algo novo ou diferente com uso de poucos recursos. As inovacoes frugais tem ocorrido, em geral, associadas a economias emergentes nas quais se encontram grandes grupos de consumidores na base da piramide com necessidades nao atendidas. Todavia ha evidencias crescentes de que este fenomeno esta se tornando relevante tambem nas nacoes industrializadas, potencialmente afetando a competitividade das empresas domesticas em longo prazo, nao apenas no exterior, mas tambem localmente. Como consequencia, os estudiosos da inovacao frugal comecaram a investigar tentativas de sistematizar esse campo emergente de pesquisa e promover o desenvolvimento desse debate. Desse modo, este ensaio teorico tem por objetivos: apresentar a origem e evolucao da abordagem da inovacao frugal e sua caracterizacao atual na literatura; em seguida, discutir perspectivas futuras de estudo no tema; por fim, sugere-se que estudos futuros invistam em pesquisas empiricas, enriquecendo os debates existentes sobre