The Frugal Innovation Pyramid: A Taxonomy of Innovation Phenomenon in the Frugal Product Design Field

Abstract

This study repositions the emphasis on frugal innovation from a "Low-cost" and "Resource constraint" innovation to a "Design-Driven" innovation. It establishes a framework for illustrating the significance of design in creating frugal innovations that emphasize user requirements and market demands. Although the role of design in frugal innovation is becoming more widely recognized, it is still difficult to quantify and empirically validate. The study builds a qualitative taxonomy for categorizing design-driven frugal innovations using a phenomenological technique to address this. This resulted in the “Frugal Innovation Pyramid” that defined three key drivers: adaptability, simplicity, and resourcefulness, and six critical values: functional, user-friendly, robust growing, local, and affordable for design-driven frugal innovation. By highlighting the qualitative features of design, this study tries to bridge the gap between design and innovation, Providing an efficient tool that allows businesses to create user-centric, frugal innovations.