Resumo

The frugal innovation phenomenon is increasingly receiving attention from scholars in the field of innovation management due to its socio-economic and managerial benefits. Coming a long way from where it emerged, such innovations are starting to be implemented in developed markets and multinational organizations. Although scholars have been attempting to systematize the contributions of this approach, there is still a need for overviewing its impact and mapping opportunities in the management field, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, since literature remains dispersed.

This study aims to answer the following research question: What are the opportunities for future research regarding the frugal innovation phenomenon? For that, a novel approach to literature review on the topic is proposed in view of synthesizing scholars’ recommendations for further research, advocating that it is time to shift the focus from conceptualizing frugal innovation to mapping the field's future. Thus, the objective of this work is to synthesize recommendations for future research on frugal innovation to help establish the field.

Developing economies and emerging countries represent the origin of frugal innovation (Santos et al., 2020), which is still in its conceptual infancy (Hossain, 2018). Still, several studies have been developed about this innovation type as its adoption seems to provide benefits for organizations regarding the use of resources, production costs, and waste reduction (Agarwal et al., 2017), in addition to creating sustainable markets for all kinds of consumers. Hence, there is a need to comprehend the frugal innovation phenomenon from novel perspectives (Hossain, 2018).

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to link past and future research in the field. Using the Scopus database, 189 articles were extracted from the topic search for "frugal innovation", in which both journals and conference proceedings on the business, management, and accounting area served as filters. Further, 85 documents were removed in the screening procedure, totalizing 104 to be analyzed. Finally, IRAMUTEQ – a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) –, provided the lexical analysis, descending hierarchical analysis (DHA), and similarity analysis.

This research demonstrates the current state of the art of frugal innovation, as well as maps five categories of opportunities for further studies: (1) Establishment of the field; (2) Implementation processes; (3) Sustainable impact; (4) Challenges for value creation; and (5) Reviewing approaches to different contexts. These results benefit not only scholars working to broaden the scope of frugal innovation but also entrepreneurs, managers, and organizations aiming to adopt sustainable practices to reduce the negative impact of their structure, processes, and production on the environment.

Resulting in five clusters of future research topics based on scholars' suggestions, this study provides guidance for researchers to diffuse the frugal innovation concept in the academic field. Additionally, this research also brings to light frugal applications in different products, services, processes, or even business models. Other contributions relate to its social impact, focusing innovation studies on low-income consumers and helping achieve some of the SDGs from the UN. Finally, research limitations and suggestions to explore the proposed topics for further studies are presented.

Agarwal, N., Grottke, M., Mishra, S., & Brem, A. (2017). A systematic literature review of constraint-based innovations: State of the art and future perspectives. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 64(1), 3-15. Hossain, M. (2018). Frugal innovation: A review and research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 182, 926-936. Santos, L. L., Borini, F. M., & Oliveira, M. D. M., Jr. (2020). In search of the frugal innovation strategy. Review of International Business and Strategy.