FRUGAL INNOVATION AND SOCIAL VALUE CREATION

Frugal innovation, launched from emerging markets to overcome resource constraints and meet the needs of bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers has received widespread attention. Companies are striving to remove non-essential functions from their products or reduce their processes to cut costs, seeking to offer affordable products or services. Frugal innovation is not only related to simplicity, cost reduction and saving natural resources, but it also meets some basic human needs and creates a significant social value for low-income citizens in emerging countries. The objective of this paper is twofold, firstly through a detailed literature review, we will try to define this new emerging paradigm, as well as determine those characteristics that distinguish it from other innovations, and then find the possible interconnections between the two concepts of social sustainability which represents the important pillar of sustainable development and frugal innovation, this will be done through a theoretical narrative framework that will determine the essential themes of social sustainability and show their relevance in practice through the field of action of frugal innovation. The examples discussed demonstrate that the notion of frugal innovation can be seen as an approach to achieving social sustainability and subsequently achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper seeks to explain how businesses and non-profit organizations can collaborate to undertake frugal innovations, thereby successfully helping various groups of disadvantaged people.