In the layperson's mind, the term frugal innovation evokes ideas of frugality and cheap solutions. Experts share a broader understanding of frugal innovation as the ability to do more with less by increasing business and social value (Radjou and Prabhu, 2014). Emerging researches focus on its strategic, technological and organisational aspects. However, the core of frugal innovation is its social dimension, yet this has generally been overlooked. The aim of this paper is to explore the social dimension by showing the potential of frugal innovation to prompt social innovation. Empirical material derived from four case studies of frugal innovation illustrates this strong social dimension. Frugal innovation adds value by producing solutions cheaper than the alternatives, and allows non-consumers to become consumers, which itself is social innovation. This paper presents a novel view of frugal innovation and social innovation as closely related. The umbrella term socially driven innovation is suggested to incorporate both social and frugal innovation.

中文翻译：

---

节俭创新的社会层面

在外行人心中，“节俭创新”一词唤起了节俭和廉价解决方案的思想。专家们对节俭创新具有更广泛的了解，因为节俭创新具有通过提高商业和社会价值来事半功倍的能力（Radjou和Prabhu，2014年）。新兴研究集中在其战略，技术和组织方面。但是，节俭创新的核心是它的社会层面，但这一点通常被忽略了。本文的目的是通过展示节俭创新促进社会创新的潜力来探索社会层面。来自四个节俭创新案例研究的经验材料说明了这种强大的社会意义。节俭的创新通过提供比其他解决方案便宜的解决方案来增加价值，并允许非消费者成为消费者，这本身就是社会创新。本文提出了一种与节约创新和社会创新密切相关的新颖观点。建议采用笼统的术语“社会驱动型创新”来融合社会创新和节俭创新。