Frugal Innovation and Digitalization

Organization of a track on frugal innovation and digitalization at Radma 2021

On July 7, the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management (TIM), via its Center for Frugal Innovation, co-organized a special track on the theme of “Frugal Innovation and Digitalization: Crossing Boundaries and Creating Impact” at the recently concluded R&D Management Conference 2021 (“RADMA”). RADMA took place in an online format in 2021 after its postponement in the previous year due to COVID19 related disruptions.

The track, which was originally proposed for 2020 was reactivated and fresh papers were invited from the scholarly community. A total of eight papers were accepted for presentation after a peer-review process. The following two papers with (co-)authorship of TIM scholars were presented at the conference:

(1) Morimura, Fumikazu / Tiwari, Rajnish / Herstatt, Cornelius: “Does frugal innovation matter in the COVID-19 crisis? An investigating into the impact on consumer resistance to home energy management system in Japan” (collaborative research with the University of Kobe, Prof. Morimura from the University of Kobe presented the paper).

(2) Tiwari, Rajnish / Buse, Stephan: “Promoting Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship with Frugal Means: An Investigation into the Role of Digital Transformation” (results drawn from the study conducted under the VISION project, presented by Dr. R. Tiwari).

This track was organized in a cross-institutional and cross-country collaborative project by Suchit Ahuja (Concordia University, Canada), Rajnish Tiwari (Hamburg University of Technology, Germany) and Stephanie Cadeddu (University of Montréal, Canada). The track was very well attended and led to insightful discussions.

Here are some slides used by Rajnish Tiwari for his opening remarks at the session: tiwari_radma2021_sessionremarks. The tack was organized in partnership with OpenInnoTrain.

Image: TIM
Source: Institute for Technology and Innovation Management (TIM), 2021-07-27
https://cgi.tu-harburg.de/~timab/tim/de/institut/aktuelles

Frugal Innovation and Digitalization

Crossing Boundaries and Creating Impact

Frugal innovation has gained considerable global acceptance in research, practice, teaching, and society. Frugal innovation is centered on the development of products, services, technologies, and business models that target affordability while minimizing use of resources and creating simultaneous business, social, and/or environmental impact through innovation networks and ecosystems. Recent research also points towards the use of pervasive digital tools, technologies, platforms, value chains, and business models to drive frugal innovation. Digital tools such as SMACIT (Social Media, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, and IoT) lower the barriers of entry and enable the development of open, accessible, and affordable products and services. Moreover, the fusion of frugal and digital realms can help achieve sustainability in general, and especially UN`s global sustainable development goals (SDGs) in a scalable and impactful manner, for example by providing digitally-enabled, affordable access to healthcare, sanitation, education, and ensuring food security. Finally, also ethical concerns such as data security and ethics in the development of new products should be taken into consideration.

Source:
https://www.rnd2021.org/Conference-Tracks/id/409