A capacidade de inovação e o desenvolvimento de inovação frugal na indústria brasileira de transformação

Abstract

Innovation fosters the competitiveness of organizations around the world. In developing countries, the numerous socioeconomic problems make the innovation process difficult, requiring companies to challenge themselves in the search for innovations that, if produced at low cost and sold at low prices, can meet the needs of consumers at the base of the pyramid. It´s in this context that the concept of frugal innovation emerged, which seeks to create robust and low-priced products for less favored classes, whose purchasing power is lower, and which are mainly concentrated in emerging or developing countries. However, it´s not yet known how innovation capabilities impact the generation of frugal innovation, and how the latter is able to improve the economic and innovative performance of the Brazilian manufacturing industry. Given this gap, in this study, frugal innovation is studied from the perspective of innovation capabilities, with the aim of analyzing the influence of innovation capabilities on the generation of frugal innovation in the Brazilian manufacturing industry. To this end, a survey was carried out with 1,150 companies from different sectors, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Data were collected through the application of questionnaires and companies were categorized according to previously defined criteria, being classified into companies with frugal innovation and without frugal innovation. From this, six hypotheses were created to explain the relationships between innovation capabilities and frugal innovation, and the impact of the latter on the innovative and economic performance of firms. The results show that only development and transaction capacity generate influence – albeit negative – in the generation of frugal innovation. Operation and management capabilities do not impact frugal innovation, and this, in turn, does not positively influence the economic and innovative performance of organizations. Thus, the results cover a gap in the literature and show that frugal innovation takes a different path from other types of innovation, especially regarding the influence of innovation capabilities. Furthermore, this study contributes to practice by discussing the impact of innovation capabilities on the generation of frugal innovation in organizations based in developing countries.