Call for Contributions – Scientific symposium: “Potentials of frugal innovation in industrial countries”

Frugal innovations offer high customer value (core functionality, durability, ease of use) as well as significantly reduced costs of ownership compared with standard products and services. The phenomenon of frugal innovations was initially observed in emerging economies and the scholarly discourse still largely focuses on this context. Now there is increasing evidence that frugal solutions are also diffusing in the economically developed nations. It is, however unclear, to what extent frugal innovations are relevant for industrial economies such as Germany in economic and socio-political contexts.

This symposium is part of a larger research project funded by the BMBF as a part of its ITA (Innovations- und Technikanalysen) programme and entitled “Potentials, challenges and societal relevance of frugal innovations in the context of the global competition for innovation”. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy in Leipzig and the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management at the Hamburg University of Technology.

Date: 24 June 2016, 10am – 5pm

Venue: HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Leipzig, Germany

Continue reading

“Simple, simpler, the best…”! Germany waking up to Frugal Innovation?

On 15th April at the Hannover Messe the Federal State of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) is organizing a symposium on frugal innovations (language medium: German), with a subtitle which says “simple, simpler, the best”. The event which takes place at Nord/LB Forum between 14:00 and 18:00 hours would see several prominent speakers including Mr. Olaf Lies, Minister of Economy, Labour and Transport in Niedersachsen. Dr. Stephan Buse from CFI is also scheduled to deliver a talk with the title “Frugal Innovation – ein Konzept zur Erschließung kostensensitiver Märkte” (English: Frugal Innovation – A Concept to Capture Cost-sensitive Markets”.

Continue reading

Imperative of Frugal Innovations for Emerging Markets and Beyond

A Report on the Schmalenbach-TUHH Symposium

 By: Dr. Rajnish Tiwari
SG-Group

A group photo of symposium participants / photo: TIM-TUHH/Göldner

On the 9th and 10th October 2014 a well-received symposium on the topic of frugal innovation was held at the premises of Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). The symposium, carrying the title “Frugal Innovation” und die Internationalisierung der FuE: Hintergründe, Strategien, Fallstudien (English title: “Frugal Innovation and the Internationalization of R&D: Backgrounds, Strategies and Case Studies”) was organized by the Working Group on Innovation Management of the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. (hereafter SG) in collaboration with the Center for Frugal Innovation (hereafter CFI) of TUHH. The symposium with close to 45 participants from the industry and academia was well-attended and saw some very interesting contributions by invited speakers. The insights generated here through a unique setting of business/academia interaction can potentially push the envelope of research and help expand the currently limited understanding of frugal innovations.

(Note: For a PDF version of this article click here, otherwise you may continue reading in HTML format)

Continue reading

Schmalenbachgesellschaft und TUHH organisieren Symposium zum Thema “Frugal Innovation”

Innovationskugel 120x120Symposium

“Frugal Innovation”
und die Internationalisierung der FuE

Hintergründe, Strategien, Fallstudien

Hamburg, 9./10. Oktober 2014

Direkter Link zu allen weiteren Details sowie zur Anmeldung: hier anklicken


Continue reading

New paper: “Frugal innovation and analogies: some propositions for product development in emerging economies”

Working_Paper_84A new paper that seeks to generate some preliminary insights on the use of inventive analogies in the process of creating frugal innovations. The paper has been authored by Rajnish Tiwari, Katharina Kalogerakis and Cornelius Herstatt and was presented at the recently-held R&D Management Conference (June 3-6, 2014) in Stuttgart.

Continue reading