Chapter 11: Crowdsourcing for Frugal Innovation: Low-cost Solutions and High-impact Challenges

This chapter presents a detailed summary of crowdsourcing and frugal innovation by discussing these domains in proximity. Though each crowdsourcing and frugal innovation has a body of literature on its own, the present work attempts to explore their interconnections. The purpose of this chapter is to inform the reader about crowdsourcing pathways toward frugal innovations. The methodology adopted includes reviewing the extant literature on crowdsourcing and frugal innovation highlighting the studies directly or indirectly connecting these two. Starting from the contemporary developments in gig-economy, this chapter unfolds to definitions, concepts, and illustrations in crowdsourcing and frugal innovation. How resource constrained environments could be a breeding ground for innovation; how such innovation differs from mainstream innovation and how crowdsourcing could potentially be associated with it have been discussed. This chapter touches upon some examples from the education and agriculture sector informing the crowdsourcing-frugal innovation connect. Lastly, it attempts to present associated challenges, policy, and business implications and suggest the future directions in research on crowdsourcing and frugal innovations.