Marketing

Context (archaeology)

Value creation

Biology

Business value

Microeconomics

Commerce

Economics

Set (abstract data type)

Computer science

Business model

Business

Computer network

Paleontology

Value capture

Value proposition

Emerging markets

Open innovation

Value (mathematics)

Industrial organization

Programming language

Finance

Machine learning

Profit (economics)

Resource (disambiguation)

Disruptive innovation

Technovation

This study investigates business models for frugal innovation (i.e. a specific form of resource-constrained innovation) in the medical device and laboratory equipment industry in the context of emerging markets. Based on original data from five case studies, we investigate how firms can set up value creation and value capturing mechanisms to reach new customer segments in remote rural areas with unprecedented value propositions. With this research, we contribute to the literature on frugal innovation and business models in emerging markets. It is among the first empirical studies to apply a fine-grained perspective on resource-constrained innovation in emerging markets. In doing so, we focus on its most disruptive form, which is when these innovations entail entirely new applications. We advance and detail the value proposition for frugal innovation in these industries and argue that frugal innovation create new markets. Further, we show how firms set up their value creation and value capturing mechanisms to achieve the value proposition and identify two distinct Research & Development (R&D) strategies for frugal innovation.

Business Models for Frugal Innovation in Emerging Markets: The Case of the Medical Device and Laboratory Equipment Industry