Rural Employment Through Product Development: Entrepreneurial Framework for Grassroot Level Innovations

The purpose of this work is to develop and analyze the role of grass root level innovations in improving the livelihood of rural or semi-urban ecosystems in India through entrepreneurial framework based on user need finding and user-involved design. The paper uses an analytical study through user need finding to develop an ecofriendly carry bag–making machine targeted for livelihood generation leading to self-sustained rural and semi-urban low-income-group ecosystems. A stratified random sampling strategy and a factor-based analysis using analytical hierarchical processing (AHP) and fuzzy AHP are applied for inferential analysis to obtain factor scores of each latent variable leading to the best innovation pathway. The best grass root innovations come through the inferential analysis of responses directly gathered from the sector which is most affected. Such an innovation gets significant acceptability when the most affected strata gives direct feedback pertaining to the innovation that may lead to the creation of a sustainable livelihood ecosystem. Solution to two major practical problems, viz., (a) creating regular stable employment opportunities to people in the bottom of the pyramid and (b) reducing the pollution due to single-use plastic carry bags by providing better alternatives have been proposed through a grass root innovation approach. The study investigates the direct role of product innovation led through opinion of stake holders directly involved that results in providing a sustainable and long-term livelihood through the proposed entrepreneurial framework.