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Success factors and challenges of grassroots innovations: Learning from failure

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  • Dana, Léo-Paul
  • Gurău, Calin
  • Hoy, Frank
  • Ramadani, Veland
  • Alexander, Todd

Abstract

Grassroots innovation projects have the potential to generate novel, bottom-up solutions that respond to local situations, interests and values – solving the social, economic and environmental problems of marginalized communities; however, these projects can raise important challenges during their design, testing, development and implementation. Although extant studies identify some of these problems, the literature and practice lack a comprehensive diagnostic tool that can effectively predict the potential and success of grassroots initiatives. For this reason, important problems are often neglected, and failed projects are not thoroughly investigated and analyzed, which leads to missed opportunities of corrective learning. This study addresses this knowledge gap, proposing a diagnostic tool based on existing theoretical frameworks, which is then validated by investigating a failed grassroots innovation initiative, in order to identify its major shortcomings, and learn to avoid them in future projects. The findings also outline the role and importance of a socially inclusive approach for an effective deployment of grassroots initiatives, clarifying the relationship between grassroots innovation success and local community involvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Dana, Léo-Paul & Gurău, Calin & Hoy, Frank & Ramadani, Veland & Alexander, Todd, 2021. "Success factors and challenges of grassroots innovations: Learning from failure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:164:y:2021:i:c:s0040162517314002
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2019.03.009
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rhaiem, Khalil & Halilem, Norrin, 2023. "The worst is not to fail, but to fail to learn from failure: A multi-method empirical validation of learning from innovation failure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. John Sturzaker & Maurizio Catulli & Beate Kubitz, 2024. "Sustainability Trade-Offs in Climate Change Geographies in England," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Freisinger, Elena & McCarthy, Ian P., 2024. "What fails and when? A process view of innovation failure," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Tuochen Li & Xinyu Zhou, 2022. "Research on the Mechanism of Government–Industry–University–Institute Collaborative Innovation in Green Technology Based on Game–Based Cellular Automata," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-25, March.
    5. Gerli, Paolo & Mora, Luca & Zhang, Jun & Sancino, Alessandro, 2024. "Friends or enemies? Unraveling niche-regime interactions in grassroots digital innovations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    6. Coccia, Mario, 2023. "New Perspectives in Innovation Failure Analysis: A taxonomy of general errors and strategic management for reducing risks," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

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