Insights on Organizational Processes and Structures for Frugal Innovation

Frugal Innovation are becoming increasingly relevant in academia and among practitioners. Yet, a lot of research in this field is still based on anecdotal evidence and mainly focusses on conceptual aspects or the outcome level (i.e. products or services). In order to deepen gain more insights into the workings of Frugal Innovation this study investigates the organization of processes and structures for Frugal Innovation. For this to be examined this study draws on 11 case studies from Western firms that successfully developed Frugal Innovations for emerging and developing markets. We find that the processes and structures vary depending on whether the firm has already been active in the market prior to the Frugal Innovation initiative. In terms of structure firms tend to leverage synergies within the existing organisational infrastructure wherever possible. When it comes to processes an emphasis is put on processes that accommodate knowledge transfer, greater autonomy and allow input from the outside.