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Healthcare frugal innovation: A solving problem rationale under scarcity conditions

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  • Bianchi, Carlos
  • Bianco, Mariela
  • Ardanche, Melissa
  • Schenck, Marcela

Abstract

Healthcare innovation comprises an interactive and uneven process where different agents follow diverse rationales. Recent literature has stressed the role of hospitals as complex organizations that link health necessities and innovative solutions. Alternative innovation rationales to the mainstream innovation approach facilitate the creation of high quality solutions while promoting universal access to healthcare. Based on a case study in a public hospital located in a developing country, we show that frugal innovations, defined as a novel and satisfactory solution under resource scarcity conditions, are an adequate innovation approach for organizations operating under both severe resource restrictions and universal access to healthcare mandates. A frugal approach to innovation allows the hospital studied in this article to solve particular healthcare necessities in a specific domain. However, these processes of frugal innovation took place dissociated from the market and the public policy. Therefore, they remain circumscribed to the application context in which they emerged.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:51:y:2017:i:c:p:74-80
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.08.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Messner, Wolfgang, 2023. "The contingency impact of culture on health security capacities for pandemic preparedness: A moderated Bayesian inference analysis," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    3. Onsongo, Elsie K. & Knorringa, Peter & van Beers, Cees, 2023. "Frugal business model innovation in the Base of the Pyramid: The case of Philips Community Life Centres in Africa," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    4. Sarkar, Soumodip & Mateus, Sara, 2022. "Value creation using minimal resources – A meta-synthesis of frugal innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    5. 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).
    6. Esmaeilzadeh, Pouyan, 2022. "Identification of barriers affecting the use of health information exchange (HIE) in clinicians' practices: An empirical study in the United States," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Octaviano Rojas Luiz & Enzo Barberio Mariano & Hermes Moretti Ribeiro da Silva, 2021. "Pro-Poor Innovations to Promote Instrumental Freedoms: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-22, December.
    8. Mutanu, Leah & Gupta, Khushi & Gohil, Jeet, 2022. "Leveraging IoT solutions for enhanced health information exchange," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Chakravarty, Sanghamitra, 2022. "Resource constrained innovation in a technology intensive sector: Frugal medical devices from manufacturing firms in South Africa," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    10. Carlos Bianchi, 2019. "Diversity, novelty and satisfactoriness in health innovation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 1059-1081, July.

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