Frugal innovation in business incubators: understanding and perspectives from the managers' point of view

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5585/iji.v10i2.21563

Keywords:

Frugality, Business incubation, Competitiveness.

Abstract

The Objective of the study: To identify incubator managers' understanding and perspectives on the phenomenon of frugal innovation in these institutions.

Methodology/approach: This is a qualitative research of exploratory nature, with data collection carried out through semi-structured interviews. The interview transcripts were analyzed using categorization and Similarity Analysis using the Iramuteq software.

Originality/Relevance: Given the importance of frugal innovation and its impact on product and service development, it is worth studying this phenomenon in environments that naturally disseminate innovation, since there are still questions to be explored.

Main results: The results demonstrate that the term frugal is not used in the day-to-day incubators, however, it was verified the existence of the practice of frugal innovation in these environments. It is concluded that there is a prevalence of a positive view of managers about this type of innovation and that the practice of frugal innovation in the development of products and services is considered a competitive advantage for the incubated ventures.

Theoretical and methodological contributions: Contributes to a future research agenda with the themes: of frugal innovation practices; Mobilizing frugal innovation by the lack of resources and; Frugal innovation through apps in technology incubators.

Contributions to management: This research allows incubator managers to understand the aspects involving the theme so that they can develop strategic actions for their incubators using frugal innovation. 

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Author Biographies

Alecxandro Pellin, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná

Mestre em administração pela Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná - Unioeste.

Marcelo Roger Meneghatti, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná.

Doutor em Administração, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná - UNIOESTE

Sandra Mara Stocker Lago, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná – UNIOESTE

Doutora em Desenvolvimento Regional e Agronegócio pela Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná - Unioeste

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Published

22.06.2022

How to Cite

Pellin, A., Meneghatti, M. R., & Lago, S. M. S. (2022). Frugal innovation in business incubators: understanding and perspectives from the managers’ point of view. International Journal of Innovation, 10(2), 319–338. https://doi.org/10.5585/iji.v10i2.21563

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