The impact of frugal innovation on sustainability: a systematic literature review

Concerns about sustainability challenges are growing. Companies are under pressure to rethink existing innovation paradigms. In this context, research interest in the resource constrained innovation concept, frugal innovation, has increased. In this paper, we examine the impact of frugal innovation on the economic, social, and ecological sustainability dimensions by conducting a systematic literature review of 44 papers. We find that frugal innovation is a promising approach to promote sustainable development from an economic perspective and a social perspective. Nevertheless, positive and negative effects exist in all three dimensions. Thus, a positive relationship is not inherent but must be proactively formed. External factors can influence the impact of frugal innovation on sustainability. For future research we recommend (1) establishing a unified understanding of frugal innovation through a clear definition, (2) broadening the research focus to a global perspective, (3) assessing the impact of frugal innovation along the entire product life cycle, and (4) investigating characteristics that make frugal innovation sustainable.