IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/tuhtim/315056.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Perspectives and Misconceptions about Frugal Engineering in Advanced Product Development: An Industry Insight

Author

Listed:
  • Achtelik, Timo
  • Abdalla, Kanzy
  • Herstatt, Cornelius

Abstract

Frugal innovation and frugal engineering are becoming increasingly important in both academic and practical discussions in the face of various economic, social and environmental pressures. Despite numerous positive associations and opportunities of frugality in the corporate environment, the discourse is still characterized by several barriers and enablers that impede a broad diffusion. In our paper, we contrast these barriers and enablers using a mix of industry evidence from action research and interview studies. In doing so, we highlight common misconceptions in the conceptual understanding of frugal engineering and create new perspectives on frugal product development specifically for practitioners in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Achtelik, Timo & Abdalla, Kanzy & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2025. "Perspectives and Misconceptions about Frugal Engineering in Advanced Product Development: An Industry Insight," Working Papers 116, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:315056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/315056/1/TUHH_WP_116_Achtelik_et_al_2025.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simone Carmine & Valentina De Marchi, 2023. "Reviewing Paradox Theory in Corporate Sustainability Toward a Systems Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 139-158, April.
    2. Rao, Balkrishna C., 2013. "How disruptive is frugal?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 65-73.
    3. Tiwari, Rajnish & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2013. ""Too good" to succeed? Why not just try "good enough"! Some deliberations on the prospects of frugal innovations," Working Papers 76, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    4. Adriana Dima & Alexandru-Mihai Bugheanu & Ruxandra Dinulescu & Ana-Madalina Potcovaru & Constanta Alice Stefanescu & Irinel Marin, 2022. "Exploring the Research Regarding Frugal Innovation and Business Sustainability through Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-36, January.
    5. Achtelik, Timo & Herstatt, Cornelius & Tiwari, Rajnish, 2022. "Frugal sustainability: A new perspective to foster corporate sustainability," Working Papers 112, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, revised 2022.
    6. Krohn, Malte & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2018. "The question of a frugal mindset in Western MNCs: Exploring an emerging phenomenon with a systematic literature review," Working Papers 103, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    7. Jaques Angot & Loïc Plé, 2015. "Serving poor people in rich countries: the bottom-of-the-pyramid business model solution," Post-Print hal-01563022, HAL.
    8. Bianchi, Marco & Cordella, Mauro, 2023. "Does circular economy mitigate the extraction of natural resources? Empirical evidence based on analysis of 28 European economies over the past decade," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    9. Herstatt, Cornelius & Tiwari, Rajnish, 2020. "Opportunities of frugality in the post-Corona era," Working Papers 110, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    10. Rajnish Tiwari & Cornelius Herstatt, 2014. "Aiming Big with Small Cars," India Studies in Business and Economics, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-319-02066-2, June.
    11. Jungell-Michelsson, Jessica & Heikkurinen, Pasi, 2022. "Sufficiency: A systematic literature review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Achtelik, Timo & Tiwari, Rajnish, 2022. "Ecological lightweight design for sustainable composites: Need for application of frugal engineering principles," Working Papers 114, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    2. Achtelik, Timo & Herstatt, Cornelius & Tiwari, Rajnish, 2022. "Frugal sustainability: A new perspective to foster corporate sustainability," Working Papers 112, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, revised 2022.
    3. Tiwari, Rajnish & Bergmann, Stephan, 2018. "What pathways lead to frugal innovation? Some insights on modes & routines of frugal, technical inventions based on an analysis of patent data in German auto components industry," Working Papers 105, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    4. Tiwari, Rajnish & Kalogerakis, Katharina, 2016. "A bibliometric analysis of academic papers on frugal innovation," Working Papers 93, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    5. Hossain, Mokter & Park, Sukyung & Shahid, Subhan, 2023. "Frugal innovation for sustainable rural development," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    6. Tiwari, Rajnish & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2013. "Innovieren für preisbewusste Kunden: Analogieeinsatz als Erfolgsfaktor in Schwellenländern," Working Papers 75, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    7. Rossetto, Dennys Eduardo & Borini, Felipe Mendes & Bernardes, Roberto Carlos & Frankwick, Gary L., 2023. "Measuring frugal innovation capabilities: An initial scale proposition," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    8. Gerrit A. De Waal, 2016. "An Extended Conceptual Framework For Product-Market Innovation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(05), pages 1-26, June.
    9. Sarkar, Soumodip & Mateus, Sara, 2022. "Doing more with less - How frugal innovations can contribute to improving healthcare systems," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    10. Hossain, Mokter, 2017. "Mapping the frugal innovation phenomenon," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 199-208.
    11. Tiwari, Rajnish, 2016. "India's potential as a lead market for frugal innovation and the role of socio-cultural context factors," Working Papers 94, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    12. Barnikol, Julian & Liefner, Ingo, 2022. "The prospects of advanced frugal innovations in different economies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Sharmelly, Rifat & Ray, Pradeep Kanta, 2021. "Managing resource-constrained innovation in emerging markets: Perspectives from a business model," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    14. Hossain, Mokter, 2021. "Frugal innovation: Unveiling the uncomfortable reality," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Tiwari, Rajnish & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2013. ""Too good" to succeed? Why not just try "good enough"! Some deliberations on the prospects of frugal innovations," Working Papers 76, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    16. Rakhshanda Khan, 2016. "How Frugal Innovation Promotes Social Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-29, October.
    17. Bianchi, Carlos & Bianco, Mariela & Ardanche, Melissa & Schenck, Marcela, 2017. "Healthcare frugal innovation: A solving problem rationale under scarcity conditions," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 74-80.
    18. Tiwari, Rajnish & Kalogerakis, Katharina & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2014. "Frugal innovation and analogies: Some propositions for product development in emerging economies," Working Papers 84, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    19. Jashim Uddin Ahmed & Asma Ahmed, 2018. "Agrani Doer Banking: Agent Banking Business in Bangladesh," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 6(2), pages 154-164, July.
    20. Mario Pansera & Fabien Martinez, 2017. "Innovation for development and poverty reduction: an integrative literature review," Post-Print hal-02887777, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Frugal Engineering; Frugal Innovation;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:315056. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ittuhde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.