IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joamsc/v48y2020i5d10.1007_s11747-019-00639-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the feasibility and value of grassroots innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Shaphali Gupta

    (Management Development Institute Gurgaon)

Abstract

Grassroots innovation (GRI) that meets the needs of people at the bottom of the pyramid is driven typically by economically disadvantaged people who find practical and creative solutions using indigenous knowledge to solve their localized problems. In this study, we propose a comprehensive framework to describe factors contributing to the feasibility and value of GRI in society. By employing a triangulation approach, we identify the drivers of GRI, develop and define GRI as a multidimensional construct, explain the outcomes, and suggest the moderating factors conducive to GRI success. We then discuss and develop research propositions on the various proposed relationships in the GRI framework. In addition to setting up a foundation for a future research stream based on GRI, this study provides implications for policymakers, mainstream firms, and co-operative societies/non-profit organizations to realize the financial, environmental, and societal benefits from GRI.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaphali Gupta, 2020. "Understanding the feasibility and value of grassroots innovation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 941-965, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joamsc:v:48:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1007_s11747-019-00639-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11747-019-00639-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-019-00639-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11747-019-00639-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meek, William R. & Pacheco, Desirée F. & York, Jeffrey G., 2010. "The impact of social norms on entrepreneurial action: Evidence from the environmental entrepreneurship context," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 493-509, September.
    2. Mojtaba Vaismoradi & Hannele Turunen & Terese Bondas, 2013. "Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 398-405, September.
    3. Luigi Paganetto & Edmund S. Phelps (ed.), 2003. "Finance, Research, Education and Growth," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-4039-2023-2, October.
    4. Ramani, Shyama V. & SadreGhazi, Shuan & Duysters, Geert, 2012. "On the diffusion of toilets as bottom of the pyramid innovation: Lessons from sanitation entrepreneurs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(4), pages 676-687.
    5. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua Linn, 2004. "Market Size in Innovation: Theory and Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 1049-1090.
    6. Anthony B. Atkinson & Eric Marlier & Brian Nolan, 2004. "Indicators and Targets for Social Inclusion in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 47-75, February.
    7. Mario Pansera & Soumodip Sarkar, 2016. "Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, January.
    8. Mourad Dakhli & Dirk De Clercq, 2004. "Human capital, social capital, and innovation: a multi-country study," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 107-128, March.
    9. Edmund Phelps, 2015. "Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10058-2.
    10. Allen L. Hammond & William J. Kramer & Robert S. Katz & Julia T. Tran & Courtland Walker, 2007. "The Next 4 Billion," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 2(1-2), pages 147-158, April.
    11. Mariano Fressoli & Elisa Arond & Dinesh Abrol & Adrian Smith & Adrian Ely & Rafael Dias, 2014. "When grassroots innovation movements encounter mainstream institutions: implications for models of inclusive innovation," Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 277-292, October.
    12. Martin, Chris J. & Upham, Paul & Budd, Leslie, 2015. "Commercial orientation in grassroots social innovation: Insights from the sharing economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 240-251.
    13. Robert Oxoby, 2009. "Understanding social inclusion, social cohesion, and social capital," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(12), pages 1133-1152, October.
    14. Mark A. Dutz, 2007. "Unleashing India's Innovation : Toward Sustainable and Inclusive Growth," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6856.
    15. Belenzon, Sharon & Schankerman, Mark, 2015. "Motivation and sorting of human capital in open innovation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58514, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Srinivas, Smita & Sutz, Judith, 2008. "Developing countries and innovation: Searching for a new analytical approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 129-140.
    17. Anup Karath Nair & Rajnish Tiwari & Stephan Buse, 2017. "Emerging Patterns of Grassroots Innovations: Results of a Conceptual Study Based on Selected Cases from India," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Cornelius Herstatt & Rajnish Tiwari (ed.), Lead Market India, pages 65-95, Springer.
    18. Leiponen, Aija, 2005. "Skills and innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 303-323, June.
    19. Marguerite S. Robinson, 2001. "The Microfinance Revolution," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28956.
    20. Anil K Gupta, 2010. "Grassroots Green Innovations for Inclusive, Sustainable Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Innovation for Development Report 2009–2010, chapter 0, pages 137-146, Palgrave Macmillan.
    21. Anil K. Gupta, 2006. "From Sink to Source: The Honey Bee Network Documents Indigenous Knowledge and Innovations in India," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 49-66, July.
    22. Leeflang, Peter S.H. & Verhoef, Peter C. & Dahlström, Peter & Freundt, Tjark, 2014. "Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-12.
    23. Anil K. Gupta, 2012. "Innovations for the poor by the poor," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1/2), pages 28-39.
    24. V. Kumar & JeeWon Brianna Choi & Mallik Greene, 2017. "Synergistic effects of social media and traditional marketing on brand sales: capturing the time-varying effects," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 268-288, March.
    25. Saradindu Bhaduri & Hemant Kumar, 2011. "Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to innovate: tracing the motivation of ‘grassroot’ innovators in India," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 10(1), pages 27-55, June.
    26. Martin Andersson & Charlie Karlsson, 2004. "The role of accessibility for the performance of regional innovation systems," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Per Flensburg & Sven-Åke Hörte (ed.), Knowledge Spillovers and Knowledge Management, chapter 10, pages 283-310, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    27. Sharon Belenzon & Mark Schankerman, 2015. "Motivation and sorting of human capital in open innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 795-820, June.
    28. Gupta, Anil K., 2007. "Grassroots to Global: Online Incubation of Grassroots Innovations based Enterprises," IIMA Working Papers WP2007-07-07, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    29. Charlie Karlsson & Per Flensburg & Sven-Åke Hörte (ed.), 2004. "Knowledge Spillovers and Knowledge Management," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3385.
    30. Camps, Susanna & Marques, Pilar, 2014. "Exploring how social capital facilitates innovation: The role of innovation enablers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 325-348.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Feng & Zhu, Lei & Xu, Zhi & Wu, Yingying, 2023. "Moving from reverse engineering to disruptive innovation in emerging markets: The importance of knowledge creation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Nele Cannaerts & Wim Coreynen & Zainab Noor el Hejazi & Joeri van Hugten & Ellen Loots & Hendrik Slabbinck & Johanna Vanderstraeten, 2020. "Co-Creative Action Research Experiments—A Careful Method for Causal Inference and Societal Impact," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-28, September.
    3. Tang, Jinghua & Liu, Qigui, 2024. "R&D tax incentive policy, intellectual property right protection, and corporate innovation in an emerging market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Mouzas, Stefanos, 2022. "What drives business transformation? Evidence from manufacturer-retailer networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 282-293.
    5. Adegoke Oke & Anand Nair, 2023. "From chaos to creation: The mutual causality between supply chain disruption and innovation in low‐income markets," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 59(3), pages 20-41, July.
    6. Wenhai Zhang & Jiang Xin, 2023. "Green Spaces and the Spontaneous Renewal of Historic Neighborhoods: A Case Study of Beijing’s Dashilar Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-27, December.
    7. Claybough Tarcisius Mapfumo & Dr Nyasha Kaseke & Dr Alice Zinyemba & Professor Joseph Ntayi & Adnos Chikomo, 2024. "Rethinking Sustainability for Foreign-Funded Community-Based Projects (CBPS) in Low-Income Countries," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3s), pages 2063-2076, March.
    8. Roy, Subhadip & Mohapatra, Subhalaxmi, 2023. "Exploring the culture–creativity–innovation triad in the handicraft industry using an interpretive approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

    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. Singh, Sonal H. & Bhowmick, Bhaskar & Eesley, Dale & Sindhav, Birud, 2021. "Grassroots innovation and entrepreneurial success: Is entrepreneurial orientation a missing link?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    2. Mario Pansera & Fabien Martinez, 2017. "Innovation for development and poverty reduction: an integrative literature review," Post-Print hal-02887777, HAL.
    3. Hamidi, Shima & Zandiatashbar, Ahoura & Bonakdar, Ahmad, 2019. "The relationship between regional compactness and regional innovation capacity (RIC): Empirical evidence from a national study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 394-402.
    4. Dey, Anamika & Gupta, Anil K., 2016. "Empathetic climate resilient frugal innovations for sustainable communities," IIMA Working Papers WP2016-03-53, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    5. Hossain, Mokter, 2018. "Grassroots innovation: The state of the art and future perspectives," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 63-69.
    6. Mario Pansera & Soumodip Sarkar, 2016. "Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Guoli Chen & Sterling Huang & Philipp Meyer‐Doyle & Denisa Mindruta, 2021. "Generalist versus specialist CEOs and acquisitions: Two‐sided matching and the impact of CEO characteristics on firm outcomes," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1184-1214, June.
    8. Kushlin, Valery Ivanovich (Кушлин, Валерий Иванович) & Ustenko, V.S. (Устенко, В.С.), 2016. "Analysis of International Experience of Intensification of Scientific and Innovative Activity in the Modern Unstable Conditions [Анализ Международного Опыта Активизации Научно-Инновационной Деятель," Working Papers 2832, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    9. Bhattacharjya, Bibhuti Ranjan & Bhaduri, Saradindu & Kakoty, Sashindra Kumar, 2023. "Co-creating community-led frugal innovation: An adapted Quadruple Helix?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    10. Sanghamitra Chakravarty & Georgina Mercedes Gómez, 2024. "A Development Lens to Frugal Innovation: Bringing Back Production and Technological Capabilities into the Discourse," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(1), pages 82-101, February.
    11. Karlsson, Charlie & Johansson, Börje, 2006. "Regional Development and Knowledge," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 76, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    12. Mehmet Güney Celbiş & Pui-Hang Wong & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2021. "Innovativeness, Work Flexibility, and Place Characteristics: A Spatial Econometric and Machine Learning Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-29, December.
    13. Afcha, S. & García-Quevedo, J. & Mas-Verdú, F., 2023. "Gaining or losing PhDs: What are the effects on firms' linkages with universities?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    14. Charlie Karlsson & Gunther Maier & Michaela Trippl & Iulia Siedschlag & Gavin Murphy, 2010. "ICT and Regional Economic Dynamics: A Literature Review," JRC Research Reports JRC59920, Joint Research Centre.
    15. Dufhues, Thomas & Buchenrieder, Gertrud & Fischer, Isabel, 2006. "Social capital and rural development: literature review and current state of the art [Sozialkapital und ländliche Entwicklung: Literaturüberblick und gegenwärtiger Stand der Forschung]," IAMO Discussion Papers 96, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    16. González-Martinez, Paulina & García-Pérez-De-Lema, Domingo & Castillo-Vergara, Mauricio & Hansen, Peter Bent, 2023. "Determinants and performance of the quadruple helix model and the mediating role of civil society," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Lianne Hans & Sierdjan Koster, 2018. "Urbanization and start-up rates in different geographies: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1033-1054, December.
    18. Fakhimi, MohammadAmin & Miremadi, Iman, 2022. "The impact of technological and social capabilities on innovation performance: a technological catch-up perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    19. Marletto, Gerardo & Sillig, Cécile, 2019. "Lost in Mainstreaming? Agrifood and Urban Mobility Grassroots Innovations with Multiple Pathways and Outcomes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 88-100.
    20. Godlewska Malgorzata & Mackiewicz Marta, 2023. "Local context of local government participation in the innovation networks: Evidence from Poland," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 59(3), pages 243-263, September.

    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:spr:joamsc:v:48:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1007_s11747-019-00639-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.