Business models for frugal innovation : the role of Resource-Constraints

Frugal Innovation is an extreme case of innovation: radically new applications are innovated for an environment of extreme resource and cost constraints. While the phenomenon of frugal innovation has been described from a product perspective, very little is known about how firms organize frugal innovation on a business model level. This study is based on a multiple case study approach investigating five business models for frugal innovation in the context of the medical equipment market in emerging economies. We find that there exists an overarching frugal business logic, based on which firms can establish different business models.