A Bibliometric Map of Intellectual Communities in Frugal Innovation Literature

Frugal innovation is the process of innovating to respond to severe resource constraints with products that have cost advantages compared with existing solutions. The philosophy behind frugal innovation can be applied to both products and services from different sectors, as shown by academia and managerial applications. In this article, the purpose is to examine the intellectual structure of the developing domain of frugal-innovation research in order to identify the most active and influential communities, as well as the most seminal works and the most active scholars. Therefore, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the literature on frugal innovation. The outcomes of our analysis allow us to offer an objective and scientific mapping of the development of this field. Four distinct intellectual communities have been identified: strategic challenges, inclusive development, sustainability, and industrial application. We, herein, provide insights into the commonalities between these distinct communities and into the intellectual structure of the domain, as well as indications for future studies. The results dig into the evolution of the topic and instigate further research explorations toward the industrial applications of frugal innovation, addressing whether and how this approach could deliver benefits to companies in terms of product development, industrial systems, and logistics.