Frugal process innovation and local innovation systems - the case of a small producers' cluster in northern Vietnam

This chapter presents a case study of a frugal technological innovation in a polluting ceramics-producing cluster in northern Vietnam. Small producers introduced advanced new kiln firing technology, which increased productivity and alleviated poverty in the village, and resulted in cleaner production. One notable feature was that the small producers themselves took the initiative, without the involvement of a (frugal) design technology programme or a government institution. The case suggests that internal regulation mechanisms within the community pushed small producers to acknowledge responsibility for environmentally harmful production processes. This was not a strategic decision taken at the firm level, but the result of emergent innovation consequences, involving close interactions and informal coordination among actors at the small industrial cluster level. The supporting formal actors only became involved after the new technology was successfully implemented. The case provides the basis for a concluding theoretical framework of frugality drivers and actors in a societal innovation process.